Even as Americans are obsessed with whether Trump is controlling the Wuhan Virus or whether Costco will have more toilet paper, unnerving things are happening on the Greece-Turkey border. Turkey has unleashed tens of thousands of Muslim refugees who are headed to Europe, an invasion that, if successful, could destroy Europe's economy and will advance the demographic change started in 2015.

On February 29, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced that he was sending the millions of Syrians and other Muslim refugees staying in his country to Europe via Greece. He justified the move by claiming that Europe was not helping Turkey financially with the refugees and that he needed Europe to support his war against Russian and Syrian offensives. Almost instantly, several thousand Syrians and other Muslim migrants had massed along sections of the 120-mile border between Greece and Turkey.

Greece, though, which still has a lagging economy long after the recession officially ended, has refused to admit the Muslim migrants. Nearly 80% of Greeks polled agree with the government.

Turkey has pushed back against the Greek stand at the border and released footage purporting to show Greek soldiers shooting the migrants:

Shots fired? | #Turkey says #Greek soldier ‘fired’ at migrants



A footage handed out by the Turkey’s govt on Saturday allegedly shows a #Greece's soldier firing shots toward a barbed-wire fence at the border. pic.twitter.com/yLWtd8KgmN — RT (@RT_com) March 7, 2020

In addition to trying to score propaganda points, Turkey has also attacked the Greek guards, not with bullets, but with tear gas:

Footage shows the tear gas clouds on the Greek side of the border after Turkish police fired teargas rounds over the border pic.twitter.com/HFpVpLml6G — CNW (@ConflictsW) March 4, 2020

In addition, Turkish armored vehicles have been seen using ropes to pull down the Greek border fence:

A Turkish armoured vehicle with a rope attached to it was reportedly trying to pull down the Greek border fence this evening #Turkey #Greece pic.twitter.com/2lW3QuFypL — CNW (@ConflictsW) March 7, 2020

All of the above videos need to be taken with a grain of salt, because the first casualty of both war and almost-war is truth.

When the Greek prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, accused Turkey of aiding the migrants with crossing into Europe, Turkey's interior minister, Suleyman Soylu, did not deny it. He said the point behind sending the refugees is to destroy Europe's economy:

Refugees who cross to Europe will soon top to a million, European governments will fall, their economies will be destabilized and their stock exchanges will tumble and they can't do anything about it, says #Turkey's Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu. pic.twitter.com/xeUBX8uiwZ — Abdullah Bozkurt (@abdbozkurt) March 7, 2020

While Western Europe is paralyzed, Central European nations are sending help to Greece:

[T]he Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia pledged to help Greece to deal with pressure along its border. Speaking after meeting his counterparts from the other three countries, Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis said the situation was serious and the EU must protect its borders. "We're ready to help," Babis said. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said his country was ready to deploy guards at the Greek-Turkish border, while his Slovak counterpart Peter Pellegrini said the growing number of migrants "poses a security threat not just for Greece." Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said that there are some 130,000 migrants on the move that the EU has to stop on its borders, and that "Hungary will take an active role in doing so." The four countries have been known for their tough stance against migrants and rejected an EU plan to redistribute refugees in member states.

World War I was not an intentional war. The great powers stumbled into it over two months.

In June 1914, anarcho-socialist Bosnians assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the tottering Austro-Hungarian Empire. The empire declared war on Serbia, Russia countered, Germany declared war on Russia, and Germany then attacked France and Belgium. The Belgian king sought help from Britain, and — boom! — World War I.

By War's end, Russia was communist, America was a world power, and 40 million people were dead, not counting the approximately 17 to 100 million who died when war unleashed the Spanish Influenza on the world.

The point of that little history lesson is a reminder that, in Europe, limited border wars have spiraled out of control before. It would be well if Western Europe, not just Central Europe, would take a firm stand against Turkey and an equally firm stand against uncontrolled Muslim invasions.