Naa!

I wasn’t connecting the use of Turkish soldiers to put down any insurection with the obvious reality that Brussels is now the real seat of power and it won’t take long before a terrorist group makes that observation.The two are not necessarily congruent.I would also add tha al Qaeda is a terrorist group not the Wehrmact or the Red Army,they cannot take territory.

The use of Turkish soldiers would bring about another war,our elites may be an effete bunch of slimy toads but the people are not.

Richard MacEnroe,

There is a great deal of apathy towards the EU,witness the poor voting turout for EU elections.There is also a great deal of antipathy and in many countries EU rules and regulations are simply ignored.National identity is not erased so easily,especially those for whom no one has any respect.

This is only act one,there will be much weeping and gnashing of teeth before we are done.

ìThere’s considerable potential in the nations of Eastern Europe. To the degree that these countries become entangled with the EU and its bureaucracy, this potential could be strangled at birth. Is there anything we can do to help prevent this?î

They walked into this with the eyes wide opened. In fact, they begged to be admitted.

Donít kid yourselves: socialist tradition is firmly implanted in Eastern Europe (degree probably depends on a country, but it is there). The thing they did not like was socialism imposed by the Soviets with the loss of sovereignty. In fact, they always dreamed to be ìjust like Swedenî. Nobody there wants truly free markets ñ the myth of ìinhuman American-style capitalismî is live and well there, and all the horror stories of people dying on the streets in America for the lack of health insurance are taken as a gospel. Eastern Europeans will have to learn the hard way that swapping master in Moscow for master in Belgium was not such a good idea, even if the master in Belgium does not have a standing army. They may eventually figure it out as they a bit more distrustful of foreign powers, but only after they get hurt – again.

And what PeterUK writes about public sector in the Western Europe is equally applicable to Eastern Europe.

1. So there is a seccession clause? Interesting. But the requirement that it be activated by the member nation’s constitution seems like a loophole. What if the member nation’s constitution either doesn’t have a mechanism to effect seccession or the EU Constitution supplants all existing constitutions in member nations?

What’s really amusing is the idea that a centrally located EU member nation might withdraw from the EU and then implement more business friendly policies. That would suck out a great deal of GDP growth out of the EU itself.

2. Europe’s problem is that it has been a mostly homogeneous population. It’s easy to have good race relations when there’s only one race.

3. “As for Turkish troops putting down rebellion,Brussels would talk tough until the first separatist bomb tore through one of their brasseries.Imagine when ETA realises that Brussels and not Madrid is the seat of power,or al Qaeda comes to the conclusion that if they grab them by the sprouts,their hearts and minds will follow.”

Hmmm. Well I can’t say that I necessarily disagree. Except I will point out that the Turkish Army has a great deal of experience in fighting terrorists. Additionally it does not necessarily follow that AQ would object to Turkish soldiers being the majority in a EU Army. It would probably speed up the Islamicization.

Whether or not the bureaucrats in Brussels would have either the nerve or backbone to do anything, that really depends.

“Euros have not been fully able to integrate and assimilate…”

I should have written “… not been better able to integrate…”

The US and the other nations I mentioned have not been fully able to integrate and assimilate immigrant populations. We have, however, more deeply and openly confronted a broader range of the issues involved despite imperfect resolutions of those issues.

Euros seem to be unwilling (perhaps it is fear) to confront these issues and deal with them. The nearly universal Euro reaction to uncomfortable confrontation seems to be to layer more bureaucracy upon society and to accept endemic corruption as just another form of wealth redistribution.

They never believed Saddam would be deposed.

They never believed the US would hold fast in Iraq.

They never believed the Iraqis would turn out to vote.

They sure as hell do believe the Iraqis will remember whose pockets they lined…