Germany doesn’t want to save Greece. It seems to want to humiliate Greece

Greece has offered an almost unconditional surrender on its bailout, but Germany might not accept anything less than a Carthaginian peace. In other words, a deal that not only forces Athens to submit, but also humiliates it in the process.

This latest melodrama, playing out in Brussels as European finance ministers meet to discuss whether or not to approve a new Greek bailout, appears so nonsensical that it can be hard to believe these people are deciding the future of Europe. Although you wouldn't know it from the headlines, the truth is that Greece and Europe have been close to a deal for awhile now. Both sides agreed about how much austerity Athens should do, but disagreed about how Athens should do it—at least until last Thursday. That's when Greece came up with an offer that was not only nearly identical to Europe's, but also to the one its people had just rejected in a referendum. French President François Hollande, whose government helped put the proposal togehter, called it a "serious" and "credible" one. At the very least, it seemed like the basis for new negotiations .... http://www.washingtonpost.com