Thanks Olog-hai.
Posted on 03/13/2013 12:37:02 AM PDT by Olog-hai
Former Eurogroup chief Jean-Claude Juncker has warned of “sleeping war demons” in Europe and compared the current situation to the year before the outbreak of the first world war, when everybody took peace for granted.
“For my generation, the common currency always meant politics of peace. Today, I am to some extent saddened to see that too many in Europe are again lost in petty national thought processes,” the Luxembourg Prime Minister said in an interview with Der Spiegel published on Monday (11 March). …
“Those who think that the question of war can never be raised in Europe any more may be massively wrong. The demons are not gone; they are only sleeping, as the wars in Bosnia and Kosovo have shown. I am astounded to what extent the European situation today is similar to 100 years ago,” Juncker said, in reference to 1913, the year before the first world war broke out.
“There are striking parallels to 1913 in respect to carelessness. Many in Europe back then thought a war could never happen again. The big powers on the continent were economically so closely intertwined that there was a widespread belief they could simply not afford a military conflict. Especially in northern and western Europe, there was a deep complacency stemming from the idea that peace was forever granted.” …
(Excerpt) Read more at euobserver.com ...
The problem as I see it is the chokehold the EU wants to maintain on it’s subject population’s. EU elites have used the “spectre of war” to cram unpopular decisions down the throats of said people. You can’t run an country on guilt.
That’s more like running an empire on fear.
A rapidly failing faux empire at that.
No; this crisis is deliberate. They want to get more compliance out of the member states. It’s all in Juncker’s words here, too.
I know. Fear is a great motivator. But Europe has never had real unity from time immemorial and this EU experiment has been erzatz from the getgo. Grand theft by any other name.
Europe’s white population is aging as fast as Japan’s. What are they going to do, give grampa an AR-15 for his frontline combat wheelchair?!
Hmmmmm. I believe "Junker" means "young lord" in German and was a general term for the Prussian nobility at one time. From Bismark, up through the Weimar Republic, the Junkers basically ran the German Empire through private wealth and through military and civil service.
If a Juncker says Europe is now somewhat similar to pre-WWI Europe, then perhaps that is a very bad thing.
I’ve recently been able to trace several of my German great-great-grandparents back to the 1500s (teh internets is an amazing thing). In the course of this work, I’ve had to learn a lot of history they didn’t have in school.
The EU is of course a completely artificial thing, the product of a forced alliance between the French and the Germans (forced by the events of 1914-1945). Nobody who was still alive in May of 1945 could contemplate a recurrence.
But, like all unnatural structures invented by modernists, it is inherently unstable. It is now in the stage of pretending (cf. Hans Christian Anderson), so that the PMs of various European states can descend the stairs at Schoenfeld to the strains of a military band playing Preußens Gloria (Prussia? I thought we abolished that?) while Frau Merkel explains what their budgets will be for the next five years, all the while believing in a Union of Equals.
In America, SHTF scenarios (quite accurately) revolve around the Zombie Apocalypse. For Europe, the concerns must hark back to the 1930s.
I know that young Germans, at least in terms of the face anyone can see, affirm the “We are all Europeans now” end of die Deutschefrage. Who could blame them?
I also know that at the 1984 Olympics, the residents of Sarajevo affirmed “we are all Yugoslavs now”.
A lot can change in a little time, especially if you adhere to a circular, as opposed to a progressive or linear view of history.
There are no professional armies in Europe. They have all be downsized to brigades & battalions. Their navies & air forces have been gutted. What is left is a policing force, essentially a jobs program to boost employment.
Too, the old wars of conquest assumed great riches to be looted from the loser, along with land & slaves to be had.
Today, the winner of a war is the loser economically. Rather than loot the loser, the victor is now expected to rebuild & reform the loser; to spend billions in nation building & good will. No European country can afford to wage this kind of war.
The author cites Bosnia & Kosovo as examples of war, but these were civil, cultural wars, not wars between nations. Civil wars are a real possibility, as multiculturalism has been a disaster, flooding western Europe with the dregs of Eastern Europe & the jihadists of the Middle East & Africa.
As the EU economies continue to collapse, indigenous Europeans are gonna look for scapegoats & “foreigners” are common targets. Purging the “foreigners”, many of whom have live in their host country for generations, would require force, & that could lead to civil war.
Sure, there are some territorial disputes in Europe, mostly Greece & its neighbors, that could lead to shots being fired, but countries like Greece can't sustain a war for very long without suffering economic collapse. Recall that Germany signed the WWI Armistice because her economy was in ruins & Germans were starving.
So, I very much doubt any major EU nation will be attacking anybody, while the minor EU nations will pursue age old, but minor feuds - not much more than gang wars - as usual.
Wow, that sounds like a good football (both types!) team name: GO WAR DEMONS!
In the 1930's, we had Communists and their captive trade unionists rioting in the streets of Europe, with the governments unwilling to do anything about it. Finally the middle class in Germany elected somebody who WAS willing to do something to restore order.
Now, it's the Muslims and the Leftists rioting in the streets, the money is once again looking like it will turn worthless, the middle-class is seeing lots of unemployment, especially among their children. When they turn to somebody who is willing to bust heads to restore order, what will it look like this time?
The European continent would take years to prepare for war. In previous times, there were armaments and basic military training for the populace already in place.
Today, not so much.
They’ve been targeting the Roma (gypsies) for some time now.
As the EU economies continue to collapse, indigenous Europeans are gonna look for scapegoats & “foreigners” are common targets
I think it’s a natural development in response to the geography. I like to play historical simulation/strategy games, the kind where you can re-enact history, from the dawn of civillization and onwards. What I noticed playing those games is that, on every other continent, even if you have other nearby nations competing with you, there is always room to expand, and delay conflict if you want by moving in another direction.
In Europe, it is shaped kind of like a narrow funnel, with the ocean on the short end, and a mass of Asian barbarians on the big end trying to pour in. So, once you’ve settled in Europe, there is nowhere to go, and nothing to do but fight for the little patch of ground you have, because if you don’t, the next guy coming down the funnel will try to take it from you.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
