Then let's kick the Greeks, so that they will invite him in, and then they can have a nice stronghold in Europe.

The Eu was a nice idea, but, as could be predicted, Paris, London and Berlin made a mess of it.

self-inflicted austerity, but with the debt gone.

That seems to me to be an easy choice.

It's the same choice that makes people take out huge debts on credit cards or student loans or 2nd mortgages then say they were snookered and shouldn't have to pay it back.

The manipulation of honor in this is convincing them that they were snookered, that they are the innocent victims. That's easy enough--nobody likes to think badly of themselves.

That frees them from the dishonor of being false to their word and committing fraud; instead they are virtuous defenders of honor by bravely resisted the predations of wrong-doers who abused them, and care bare the shame of defeat.They can be proud of their heritage, proud in defeat and fighting injustice perpetrated against them. All they have to do is survive.

And in so doing, say, "The South ... Uh, Greece Shall Rise Again."

At that point convincing them that they acting shamefully is almost impossible. Their identity and self-image is so tied up in it that they'll fight than accept "revisionist" history.

It worked in Alabama. It worked in the Donbas. It worked in parts of the Middle East. It'll work in Greece, and as in the Donbas no doubt put the nationalists firmly in the same camp with the socialists. Russia as natsbols, "national bol'sheviks". SYRIZA + Golden Dawn = ...?

The creditors are right when we consider the long term: Greece cannot continue to run its economy for the next 40 years as it has run it for the last 40 years. The irresponsibility of Greece that got it into this mess cannot continue.

However, Greece is right in the short term: the austerity measures demanded by the creditors have brought its economy down to Great Depression levels. It can no longer generate enough tax revenue to pay down the debt without shrinking its economy even more, especially if the creditors do not allow the country to raise or enforce taxes upon the 1%. Indeed Greece actually agreed with its creditors on an overall budget target, but the creditors demand all pension cuts while Greece wants the wealthy to share in the austerity through taxation. Pensioners spend their income; the wealthy stash it offshore. Guess which course of action would be better for the Greek economy, thereby allowing Greece a better chance at managing its debt and the creditors a better chance of getting paid? There's a reason why economists have been pleading with the EU to allow Greece some short-term flexibility.

If the EU wants to cut Greece off in the short term, or asphyxiate it by demanding even more austerity from a country already in depression and actually in need of some breathing room, the Greek economy won't even survive long enough to pay off the country's creditors. Their all-or-nothing attitude is making the self-inflicted austerity, with reclaimed sovereignty over monetary policy, the better deal for the Greeks. That's why the EU is TERRIFIED that Tspiras would dare put this to a referendum (but the eurocrats can NEVER admit mistakes, nuh uh).

This is bad for everyone involved. Germany of all nations should recognize this. After World War II, not only did Germany have much of its debt/reparations forgiven, what remained did not need to be paid until such time as the country had recovered enough to sustain the payments (i.e. until Germany attained a trade surplus). The Allies allowed such concessions partly to discourage extremists such as Nazis from gaining power again.

And yet, who is the only credible opposition to SYRZIA? The centrist parties all sold out to the austerity. That leaves Golden Dawn as the opposition. Neo-Nazis. They'd be banned in Germany, but Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany, might well hand them the next Greek election.