Saturday, July 16, 2016

The Real Enemy

If the European Union manages to stick together to punish Britain for leaving the European Union while France is still cleaning up the streets in Nice from the latest terror attack, while wavering on Russia sanctions over Ukraine, and faltering on Iran sanctions over nukes, that pretty much makes the Brexit case for leaving the EU, doesn't it?

European leaders are wavering on maintain sanctions on Russia over Russian seizure and continued aggression against Ukraine.

European leaders already pushed to end sanctions on Iran in order to pursue trade despite Iran's horrible human rights record, regional aggression, support for terrorism, and continued drive to get nuclear missiles.

European leaders seem more committed to open borders than finding jihadis.

And what would the European Union have done if Turkey had dissolved in civil war, opening the gates for more Middle East migrants and adding in Turkish refugees?

Yet one thing stiffens the spines of Brussels Eurocrats:

The most significant and overarching way in which this new geopolitical reality will manifest itself will be in a systematic policy on the part of EU institutions, particularly the European Commission and the European Parliament, to make the British experiment of living outside the Union a failure. The goal will almost certainly be to guarantee that the precedent of a member state leaving the Union is seen as a cautionary tale rather than an attractive path for others to follow. This will be a goal shared by many member states, which will want to keep nationalist movements within their borders at bay. It is hard to see why anyone in Europe would have a deep interest today in seeing the UK succeed and prosper right at the border of the EU.

For Britain, the beating will continue--including encouraging Scottish independence--until EU sentiment improves.

So yeah, it was the right thing for the British government to reject that farcical petition to vote on Brexit again.

The petition wasn't signed much when Remain thought they'd win, garnering support only after the vote (and a comedy group flooded the petition with false signatures).

Why support that petition when the polls--reflecting the massive effort by the Remain side that had all the institutions of Britain supporting Remain and belittling Leave supporters--said Remain would win?

And even the Leave side hadn't signed it in significant numbers.

Had the Remain side won, they'd have bristled indignantly at the notion that the vote wasn't definitive.

But the call for re-vote clearly shows how the pro-EU side works: no decision against the EU is ever final and the stupid people will be punished until they knuckle under out of sheer exhaustion if "reason" won't work.

And now, despite real problems that must be faced, the EU seems more interested in punishing Britain.

But take heart, Britain. The continentals wavered to get trade with Russia and Iran. They'll cut a deal with you, too.