The Trojan horse story is familiar to all of us. Greece defeated Troy by the adroit use of a wooden horse, giving birth to the ancient worldwide aphorism: "Beware of Greeks bearing gifts."

The Greeks have always been in the forefront of politics bearing gifts the whole world appreciates. Aristotle and Plato, Aristophanes and Herodotus come quickly to mind. Philosophical and political tactics like the Trojan horse were invented by the Greeks.

These days the Greeks are, as usual, playing a masterful game of international and domestic politics. After the Second World War, Greece endured one of the most violent civil wars ever between the Left socialists and communists and the Right - royalists, military people and businessmen. Greece was also the only democracy in Europe to undergo a military dictatorship under the notorious colonels junta government of 1967-1974.

The Greeks, of course, were also a subject nation of the Ottoman Empire, that is, Turkey. Turkey was fiercely Muslim, the Greeks the fiercest of Christians. The Greeks are traditionally no fans of Turkey or any Islamic countries. In the late 19th century Turkish pogroms against the Greeks, Armenians and other Christians in the Ottoman Empire sharply divided British public opinion.

Britain's legendary Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, Lord Beaconsfield, openly favoured Turkey because that enabled England and its navy to control the vital Dardanelles Straits separating Russia from Turkey. That trick British strategy earned Britain the title of Perfidious Albion.

Britain's highly moralistic party of the time, the Gladstone-led Liberals, rushed to the side of the Greeks. In the House, Gladstone asked: "Will the prime minister not heed the cries from Macedonia?"

Disraeli ignored these Greek cries and Greek public opinion became markedly anti-British. Still, it was the same Perfidious Britain that sent troops into Crete to help protect the Greeks from the 1940 invasion armies of Italy's Mussolini.

After World War Two, the Greeks were bitter against the British over their alleged bias toward the Turks in one Cyprus crisis after another. At the time, anti-Americanism in Greece was at a very low level indeed.

It was the Truman Doctrine that declared the United States would not tolerate a Soviet puppet state or takeover in Greece similar to the Soviet puppet takeovers of Poland and Czechoslovakia. The grateful Greeks ceded key air bases in Greece to the Americans.

Still, the far Left in Greece was bitterly anti-American and pro-Soviet Union. PASOK, the Greek socialist party led by the legendary Papandreou family, had a far more subtle approach to international affairs than the Greek far Left. George Papandreou senior was one of the best economists in the world. Chased out of Greece by the junta colonels, he went into exile in Berkeley, Calif., and then to York University in Toronto. He taught economics in both places.

In exile, Papandreou, with his American wife and his American-born son, plotted his own Trojan horse tactics. Papandreou formed PASOK, a united Left of socialists and communists in resistance to the Greek junta government. This Papandreou coalition included Melina Mercouri of Never on Sunday and her director husband Jules Dassin, an expelled Hollywood communist writer and director.

When the junta was toppled by the Papandreous' PASOK coalition in 1974, Greece became a very adroit player on the international scene. No one loves their fellow Greek Orthodox brethren better than the Greeks love their Orthodox brothers, the Serbs. The Kosovo war inflamed Greek opinion against the United States, but the American bombers flew over Serbia day in and day out from their air bases in Greece.

PASOK, the fusion of communism and socialism, stayed cool. Greece came out of the Kosovo war without either America or Serbia complaining about Perfidious Greece.

Today the most astute foreign secretary in Europe is the son of George Papandreou, George Papandreou junior, Greece's external affairs minister. Born in America and raised and educated in Canada, Papandreou junior has major pipelines to the United States and Canada as did his father before him.

The Greek card-playing on Iraq is draw poker at its absolute best. To placate its hard Left flank, the Greek government joined France and Germany as the big three in Europe beating the Bush on Iraq. Greece now has been busy mending fences in NATO. Belgium has taken Greece's place and is condemning NATO's boost to Turkish security. Greece is now on-side with the U.S. in NATO on Turkish security.

The Greeks have wisely remained silent on all this at NATO. Under Papandreou the junior, Greece has opened up ties with Turkey at a very rapid pace. Today neither the Americans nor the Turks are mad at Greece; neither are France and Germany.

In the game of musical chairs that is European politics today, Greece has managed to land on a safe seat at each and every turn and twist in international affairs. At the rate Greece is going, Greeks' number one export to the world at large will be: the Trojan horse game and how to play it.

Learning from the Greeks has now become a kind of cottage industry in Canadian politics as well. In Greek mythology Sisyphus is always rolling a rock up a mountain and then having to do it again and again. In Canadian politics, we have the Sisyphus legend plus gender balance playing itself out wonderfully.

Sheila Copps and John Manley are both rolling rocks up the formidable Martin mountain with a lot more success than Sisyphus ever had. For starters, Manley and Copps have put an end to the coronation of Martin, the pet scenario the media have been peddling for months.

The Liberal leadership race could possibly, just possibly, be interesting. Possibly, just possibly, the vote splits could create some surprises. If Manley is a strong second to Martin on the first ballot, on the second ballot the Copps people will go to Manley, a Chrétien loyalist. If Copps is second on the first ballot, the fiscally conservative Manley people will go to Martin, but a two-ballot affair is a possibility.

In closing, let us ask who are the three most adroit politicians in the land? They are Paul Martin, John Manley and Sheila Copps. One way or another the Liberal one-party state will continue to roll its rocks on to another majority.

Any Trojan horses the Liberals might have needed are now parked safely in the spacious garage at 24 Sussex Drive.