For what it’s worth from my perspective and for those that are listening.
Deception is so commonplace among so many countries in the Middle east that we in the “west” don’t get it.
I would include Greece in this group.
Not so much Italy.
But all the Arab states certainly practice the art of deception to advance their goals.
Americans don’t understand the need to lie or deceive any counter-party in any transaction.
We think that those “counter parties” have a the same fundamental foundation for truth that we have.
They don’t.
It’s in many ways the difference between Peter and Paul.
Here's what Alexis Tsipras says about it:
"What happened in Chile when the dictatorship fell, what is happening in Venezuela today, what happened in Argentina ten years ago, when the IMF left Argentina, all this constitutes experiences that make us much richer and help us to perfect and concretise our strategy, both in Greece and in Europe."
At the same time, Venezuela and Bolivia are copying the Greek Model!