Kathryn, speaking of the “war” word:
The reaction in Greece to the spending restraint required by the unprecedented bailout of the country’s overspent economy doesn’t seem promising. According to the BBC, state workers are striking, protesting “cuts,” including wage-and-pension freezes.
Meanwhile, the Guardian’s editorialist is lamenting the fact that “a nominally socialist government will whack up VAT and go to war with its civil servants . . . all in the name of keeping the bond markets sweet.”
War? Buying only as much government as one can afford is now an act of “war”? I guess so, at least if you’re a leader-writer for a left-wing newspaper. But if you’re a hard-working German taxpayer chipping in your share for the Greek bailout, this advice to the Greeks, from the same editorial, might seem rather more belligerent by comparison: “. . . going bust and bilking one’s creditors is a better option.”