"For all its failures, the EU's primary success (and perhaps the only one that matters) is that for nearly 70 years it has preserved the peace in Europe. It's telling that the only continental conflicts in this time have involved non-member countries".
"Yes, I know that the presence of the US had a massive part to play in this peace, but without the EU; the French, the Germans, the Spanish, the Italians, and dare I say it the British would have found a way to start a war or two between us. "
Not so. NATO is responsible for that; NATO means American power and we forget that at our peril.
D.