Iceland population is only 300,000?
Yeap, miss Claire, we are passing the 300 thousand barrier just these days. We were only about 78 thousand in the beginning of last century, after having doupled from the middle of the preceding one and I beliewe we were around 150 thousand when the US army came here during world war 2 (before Pearl Harbor). At one point there were about as many US and Allied soldiers here, as there were Icelandic males, leading to understandable struggle about Icelandic women.
So our abilities to have our own military are not realistic. Our independence was possible because of the US protection, and if we loose that, we are bound to loose our independence again. It is better to be a US satelite state than a far outlying region within the cetrally, undemocratilly controled Euroland of EU´s future.
elohim, yeah, that is one of the biggest reasons most people in Iceland do not want to join the EU. My party f.e. had a commercial before last elections, that sounding just like an BBC news congratulating us for joining the EU, and it said that today the Spanish and other countries fishing fleet had congrulated us also and would steam straigth to Iceland.
We do not want to loose control over our fishing waters as our fishing industry would suffer, just like the UK´s and many other countries has, but it is also because of nationalistic/patriotistic issues, lack of democracy within the EU and our history of being once before under foreign control, just like the EU is essentially.