As I read about the bickering back and forth among the members of the EU, I can only think that if I had been in the shoes of the Greeks or Hungarians I would have responded differently. Take this, as reported by the Wall Street Journal, for example:
BRUSSELS—European officials clashed Thursday over how to reduce the migrant influx into the continent, as Greece recalled its ambassador to Austria and threatened to veto European Union policies if its territory became a huge refugee camp.
Greece’s surprise diplomatic move—a rarity among EU governments—came two days after Greece angrily protested being left out of a meeting of Balkan states in Vienna on how to better control the flow of migrants. It also indicated Athens’s growing frustration with moves by Austria and Balkan states to limit the number of migrants, which have caused thousands to become stranded in Greece.
You see what’s going on? The EU states (other than Greece) are meeting to determine how the Greeks are going to deal with the migrant crisis that Germany created.
I’d’ve created a corridor and moved the migrants to Germany as quickly as I could.
To re-purpose H. L. Mencken’s wisecrack, technocracy is the theory that experts know what it is good and deserve to get it good and hard.
The EU states (other than Greece) are meeting to determine how the Greeks are going to deal with the migrant crisis that Germany created.
Thank God for centralized power! Imagine if the Greeks were to decide to be Greeks, instead of good little Europeans.
The Europeans failed to consider that while they may be a continent (debatable) they are not an island. Open borders work fine between France and Belgium or Germany and Austria. But between the wealthy, stable, liberal west and the distinctly desperate, unstable and non-liberal middle east? They sort of forgot Turkey and boats.
For purely selfish reasons I’d like to see the EU survive, but between currency problems, north-south and east-west stresses, and now a tidal wave of Syrians, I won’t be betting on it. Particularly given that the pre-eminent European leader, Merkel, is now seen as part of the problem. Who’s going to hold it together, Hollande?
Brexit is polling about even. A mass casualty terror attack in the UK between now and June – especially if it can be traced back to anyone coming from Syria – and I suspect Britain will bail out. If I were running ISIS I’d be doing all I could to make that happen.
I’d like to see a European union, just not the European Union. The idea of a bunch of technocrats ruling the continent by fiat from Brussels is nuts. Any such thing will inevitably devolve to the Germans doing whatever they want to do which is, of course, what has happened.