Nikos Konstandaras

When I read that the American presence in Iraq – 23 years after the invasion – ended with no fanfare, with the last Americans boarding a C-17 transport plane in the predawn hours of September 30 at an air base at Erbil in Iraqi Kurdistan, my mind wondered to another withdrawal, some 35 years earlier. Although then, too, the last American troops were leaving Northern Iraq, conditions were very different. On the sunny afternoon of July 15, 1991, F-16 fighter jets roared overhead, followed by lumbering A-10 “tank killers,” in a festive flyover, as a long convoy of the last 3,170 men and women of US and allied forces left Northern Iraq. A crowd of Kurds (fighters and civilians) had gathered at the Habur River crossing on the border with Turkey, to cheer on the allies. A few months earlier, America had led an international coalition that evicted Saddam Hussein's army from Kuwait and then hastened to protect the Kurds and other groups in Northern Iraq (Assyrians, Chaldeans, Armenians, Yezidi, and others) from the dictator's wrath. In the deserted border post, as Bob Dylan's “Knocking on Heaven's Door” (in the brilliant Guns N' Roses version) drifted over from a US Humvee with an anti-tank launcher on top, the final US sentry position in Iraq, a Kurdish fighter turned to me and said, “I came to say goodbye. But I would rather say, ‘See you later.'”

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is coming to Greece at a time when such visits are not a formality. For both sides, much depends on such contacts. The United States is dealing with two wars that have a direct impact on the whole world and, at the same time, has shown that it prefers bilateral agreements (such as the one with Greece that has been in effect for years) rather than collective procedures (as in NATO).

Is any nation happy? From East to West, North to South, within countries and between them, we see insecurity, division and violence.

For the past 10 years, the Greek-British Symposium has served as a barometer not only for the state of relations between the two traditional allies, but also for a world in rapid change.

On a bare patch of earth, save some dry weeds and a broken stone with the number 59 on it, in the graveyard of an African town, a Greek Orthodox Bishop conducted a Trisagio memorial ceremony and the leadership of the South Africa Communist Party laid wreaths. The October 9 occasion was a significant step toward restoring the memory of a man who sacrificed himself by striking against the monster of systemic racial segregation by murdering the architect of apartheid, prime minister Hendrik Verwoerd in parliament in Cape Town, on September 6, 1966.

I believe that most Europeans would agree that the European Union offers their nations the greatest possible protection against the threats of the era, yet few defend it.

The division between European Union members on major issues such as the negotiations for the 2028-2034 budget and the need to deal with high energy costs shows in the clearest way why the Union moves so slowly, and uncertainly, toward decisions necessary for its survival. Jean Monnet's dictum, from 1978, was spot on. “Europe will be forged in crises, and will be the sum of solutions adopted for those crises,” he said.

Violent protests in France always raise questions as to the health of democracy in the land which inspired a spirit of revolution in many nations. The French uprising is not the only one at this time, as the discontent of young people is being expressed through mass demonstrations in Spain, Portugal, Albania, and Serbia, among others.

Seeing the clock tower of Limoges' City Hall collapsing in a blazing heap, I wondered whether we will see it restored in a few years' time or whether it will remain as it is, a reminder of the current uprising. Will it be revived, like Paris' Notre Dame cathedral after the catastrophic fire of April 2019? Or will it remain an empty ruin, like the Attikon Cinema in Athens that was set ablaze in February 2012 and has still not reopened, a reminder of endemic violence and the inability of our state and citizens to agree on things, no matter how much time passes?

In Serbia on Sunday and in Israel on Tuesday, young voters will play a decisive role in national elections and, by extension, in their country's future.