What are they so frightened of?

Amazing, but true. Greece has 160,000 personnel under arms. Full time. And no less than 400,000 when you add in all the reservists and the paramilitaries. Little Greece, with its population of 11 million, has something like the world’s 30^th largest armed forces.

            The oddity of this is made clearer when the Hellenic military is contrasted with more typical democratic armies. That some countries – such as North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iran and Myanmar – have exceptionally large armies is hardly a startling revelation. But surely no EU member state would want to be bracketed with Iran and Myanmar?

 When comparison is drawn between Greece’s army and those of other democracies or ‘flawed democracies’ (as defined by the Economist Intelligence Unit) only two have proportionately larger armed forces. Israel and South Korea. Both obviously special cases, with every good reason to feel paranoid.

Greece has the 5^th largest armed forces in western Europe. Counting just regulars, only France, Germany, Italy and the UK are found to have more. When the full totals are compared she moves above the UK into 4^th spot. If the ‘big four’ of western Europe had armies, navies and air forces that were in proportion to Greece’s, then between them they would have nearly four million regulars under arms, and nearly ten million all told. Germany wouldn’t be far off having enough troops to relaunch Operation Barbarossa.

It is not as if Greece has any particular reason to fear her neighbours. It is true that she has a traditional enmity with Turkey, but Turkey is a fellow member of NATO. The short northern border with Albania presumably demands firm policing, but Costa Rica has managed without any regular army, navy or air force since 1948, despite being next door to Panama and Nicaragua.

So what are Greece’s massive armed forces actually for? Well, it wasn’t so long ago that they actually formed the government. Which is surely all the more reason for the politicians to cut the army down to size, lest a few ambitious colonels start getting ideas. It isn’t unlikely that the army is a form of social security for the rural poor, just as the civil service seems to be for the urban middle class. Whatever the reason, if the eastern hordes were to attack Greece anytime soon they certainly wouldn’t face a re-run of Thermopylae.