It's easy to blame the Eunuch Union for again backing off even the threat of mild sanctions against Turkey for drilling for oil and gas off Cyprus and pushing ahead with plans to do the same off Greek islands because their leaders are timid. 

But what about Greek Prime Minister and New Democracy leader Kyriakos ‘Vacillator’ Mitsotakis who said he wanted penalties against Turkey – and then pulled them back to give diplomacy a chance, which failed, so he asked for them again, and when he didn't get them said he was satisfied with a warning. 

The EU, which touts its policy of “soft power,” which doesn't work against a man with a gun in hand, really means appeasement and its support for Greece and Cyprus is limited to press releases and tweets, issued fast because lunch is ready. 

Some 80 years ago their predecessors couldn't stand up to Hitler, and this bunch, led by European Commission President Ursula Von de Lying – a German cleared by her country's governing parties of a contract scandal when she was defense minister – don't have a backbone between them. 

Just when we needed a German dominatrix we got a leader without a whip and she won't say so – and neither will German Chancellor Angela ‘Stoneface’ Merkel who blocked sanctions – but it's because there are 2.774 million people of Turkish heritage in Germany and Germany has lucrative arms deals with Turkey. 

When Turkish Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan sent the energy research vessel the Oruc Reis and warships off the Greek island of Kastellorizo, and planned to do the same off others, including Crete, Mitsotakis sent part of the Greek Navy. 

There were weeks of tension and fears of a conflict and he rightfully used the time to build an international alliance against Turkish provocations in the Aegean and East Mediterranean but forgot to include Germany. 

So Merkel, along with Spain, which has big economic ties to Turkey, protected Erdogan almost as well as did U.S. President Dead Duck, who never met a dictator he didn't like. That cut out Mitsotakis, whose party belongs to the center-right European People's Party along with Merkel's Christian Democratic Union. 

If there's anything that trumps – is that word still allowed as a verb? – party over country it's money, which, along with power and greed drives politicians. 

In October, an EU summit – that's what they call all meetings, even routine so they can pretend they're at Yalta (in Crimea on the site of the ancient Greek colony of Yalita) saving the world, they held off sanctions until December. 

In the few days running up to the Dec. 10-11 summit there was a lot of tough talk blowing through the COVID-19 masks of the armchair generals who weren't afraid of Erdogan as long as he was in Ankara. 

He yawned, said they wouldn't sanction him and even if they did it wouldn't work just as it didn't when two executives of Turkey's state-run petroleum company and nobody else was punished for the Cypriot drilling. 

So the EU backed off again and said they would take up the idea of sanctions in March and issued another warning that if Turkey doesn't stop the drilling by then that they would issue another warning and take up sanctions next October. 

They didn't even have the guts to put Turkey on double-secret probation but to show that something happened they said the assets of some Turkish officials would be frozen but couldn't reveal who – but none of them are named Erdogan. 

Mitsotakis and Cypriot President Nicos ‘Huh?’ Anastasiades, whose mouth was a no-show at the meeting, were humiliated and beaten like rented mules but the Greek leader was feeling the heat after being mocked for the debacle by the man he unseated, SYRIZA leader Alexis ‘Champagne Socialist’ Tsipras, who ridiculed Mitsotakis for having sand kicked in his face. 

Never mind that Erdogan did the same to Tsipras when the faux-leftist, who likes riding on yachts and spending the COVID-19 lockdown at a seaside luxury resort he rented for 500 euros ($605) also was steamrolled by the Sultan. 

Mitsotakis started the year almost undefeated for his handling of the economy and the pandemic but has been on a losing streak to rival the 1964 Phillies 10-game season-ending Phold that kept them out of the World Series. 

Embarrassed for not wearing a mask in a photo with a group during a mountain biking excursion during the lockdown, he didn't have a dog to kick so when the EU sent him home with his tail between his legs he tried somehow to spin a win. 

It's a good thing his mask hid his chagrin because when the fiasco finished, he came out and said the EU had given Turkey a stern warning. Where? 

“Sanctions (against Turkey) are not an end in itself,” Mitsotakis said, however adding that the EU will respond with penalties “if Turkey insists on continuing with this provocative behavior.” 

“Here, the stake is very clear, very clear: The credibility of the European Union. At the October European Council, all the heads of state and government decided that there would be consequences if Turkey continued its delinquent behavior,” he told journalists as he arrived for the summit. 

Not only were there no consequences, there wasn't even the truth.