Originally Posted by
t43562
To me it shows more clearly than ever before that a federal union is more potent than an economic community. The more you make the point that America is essential the more you really make the point that scale matters and that the EU should be trying to build it.
Well, there are Federal Unions and Federal Unions, of course. I'm sure that you are right. The EU will try to become one, just like the USA. The difference is that the latter was essentially formed of immigrants who turned their backs on whence they came as well as on the indigenous population that they came to. As Territories became States that in turn joined the Union (ack 'Oklahoma') they created a Nation that could out produce all others. The EU has done none of that and never will. Herding cats comes more to mind. It is a political creation run by a Commission that has more in common with the Politburo than a Democratic Parliament. Left to its own devices the EU will collapse under its own squabbling contradictions and in doing so invite in Europe's enemies. The Europeans, as ever, need protection from themselves. The USA, as ever, will fulfil that need through NATO and, as ever, be resented for doing so. The alternative is Armagedón.