Brussels attacks

[Khrz]

If we have this useless pile of shit political machine which is the EU, might as well go all the way again to be pretentious dicks.

It's not so much a political machine as an economic one. Of course it's going to be politically inept : it's not wired that way, and nobody wants it to be anyway. It's there to facilitate commercial exchanges in Europe, it's not a socio-political federation. It's nothing like the US government, it's a continental TTIP.
Of course economical decisions are going to bleed through into political and social territories, money is the blood of the world we live in. But beyond economical concerns, they have absolutely no power to enforce or direct political decisions in the EU. They can argue, threaten, advise and babble, that's all.

[Volband]

It's not so much a political machine as an economic one. Of course it's going to be politically inept : it's not wired that way, and nobody wants it to be anyway. It's there to facilitate commercial exchanges in Europe, it's not a socio-political federation. It's nothing like the US government, it's a continental TTIP.
Of course economical decisions are going to bleed through into political and social territories, money is the blood of the world we live in. But beyond economical concerns, they have absolutely no power to enforce or direct political decisions in the EU. They can argue, threaten, advise and babble, that's all.

Is this how you see it? Being from France, it might be unimagineable for you that the EU is trying to force your government to do anything, no one would dare to do that, but my country for example has been the center of constant EU threats and sanctions ever since our new government formed in 2010. I'm far from being a supporter of said government, but it was ridiculous when the EU was riding the "Hungary is oppressing the freedom of speech, hurr-durr!!". Or the migrant question: EU was constantly mocking us for our goverment's migrant politics, then when it was their time to prove how it's supposed to be done they crashed and burned and still not come up with a reasonable solution to the crisis. EU is great if you are France or Germany because you can push every smaller countries around, and you get to enjoy the best of double-standards. While economically it might be beneficial for smaller countries like mine (though recent years have made the average citizen wanting to get out of the EU more and more, seeing their shenanigans) there is always a price.

Let's face it, the EU absolutely failed to protect their borders then absolutely failed to come up with a working plan to integrate the migrants, whom they first welcomed with open hands, then got second thoughts, but the political pressure was too much by then. Hell, the EU has failed every single time a crisis arised. It's not much more useful than the one we had before WW2 happened. Their only luck is that this time they are choking the smaller countries and not one like Germany, and that we live in a different world. Europe is getting eaten alive from the inside, and the only unsatisfied country which holds any weight compared to France and Germany is the UK, and hopefully they will leave this sunking ship ASAP. Before that happens, it is very unlikely that any smaller country would dare to be the first. It wouldn't even achieve anything. "Oh no, Slovenia left the EU! Help!"

In a perfect world, European countries should solve their national problems alone, without any other country barking into how to do it, and in case a crisis which affects more European countries, let alone Europe in its entirety, then the EU should step on their heels and solve it asap and by all means necessary. Right now, we are in 2016, where months after it was known that Brussels was planned to be attacked, and a day after the alarms were raised, something like this could happen. A shame. Right now, as a European citizen, you have two choice: 1. keep voting these weakling people into office, so at least you can get to choose who will talk (just talk) about fighting terrorism, or 2. vote for the radical right wing, who might solve the current issues, but are so out of their minds they would create a hundred more, and I don't even see them capable of leading a country in a healthy way.

I just turned on my TV. Our prime minister said we must fight terrorism and he raised the terror-alert level for now. Maybe it's like in Captain Planet. If every prime ministers in the EU will say the same thing just a bit rephrased, we will summon Captain Anti-Terrorism who will do our job instead of us.
Meh, I know the Iraqian war got a lot of criticism and I'm not saying we should do something like that, but please, for a second, I'd like to know what it feels like to have a quasi big brother who doesn't let anyone to fuck around with his family. But no, all we get is the European Hunger Games. Can't wait for the Eastern-Europe edition! Feeling a bit left out...

[Khrz]

Let's face it, the EU absolutely failed to protect their borders then absolutely failed to come up with a working plan to integrate the migrants

Because it's not its job.
And yeah, there will be economical pressures over political decisions, I don't deny that. All I'm saying is that the EU isn't a political apparatus, and isn't built to face that kind of crisis. Everyone's trying to make it so, which is like trying to nail planks together by hammering them with a power drill. Sure, that's one way to do it, a very inefficient one.
And the UK can afford to leave the EU because it has always kept a foot out of the door from the beginning. They have a lot less to lose than any other nation involved, Germany and France included.
I agree, there are nations, like mine, who try to strong arms recent, "smaller" member nations into submission. But in the end, every country remained sovereign, and their policies are theirs to decide and enforce.

[reznovka]

[...] Or the migrant question: EU was constantly mocking us for our goverment's migrant politics, then when it was their time to prove how it's supposed to be done they crashed and burned and still not come up with a reasonable solution to the crisis. EU is great if you are France or Germany because you can push every smaller countries around, and you get to enjoy the best of double-standards. While economically it might be beneficial for smaller countries like mine (though recent years have made the average citizen wanting to get out of the EU more and more, seeing their shenanigans) there is always a price.

[...]

I see your point and as a german I have to admit that Merkel is playing boss in the EU, but at least she tries to save human lives and won't let them starve outside the EU, unlike a lot of other countries.
It's hard to see how we treat Greece and other countries and that we are now making deals with Erdogan, just to keep the refugees outside.
The EU isn't what I hoped it might bring in times of crisis, but it's better than a Europe where every country has to stand on ist own.
But I am still afraid of what the future might bring.

[Volband]

I see your point and as a german I have to admit that Merkel is playing boss in the EU, but at least she tries to save human lives and won't let them starve outside the EU, unlike a lot of other countries.
It's hard to see how we treat Greece and other countries and that we are now making deals with Erdogan, just to keep the refugees outside.
The EU isn't what I hoped it might bring in times of crisis, but it's better than a Europe where every country has to stand on ist own.
But I am still afraid of what the future might bring.

As much as I'm overall a pro-migrant, there has to be a line. Saving human lives does not mean much when the same human lives sexually assault your own people. The big question is who are those who are actually in crisis, and who are those who are just opportunistic. The solution hsould not be to let everyone in and let them fuck your country up, and in response, let the right wing side have a free ticket in abusing it. You let in the women, the children and the elderly. They are tameable and they won't try to assault (sexually or otherwise) anyone. You obviously seperate women and women with children, as the former would be the only ones who might cause some trouble.

Then you can start checking the backgrounds of husbands whose wife and children were taken into the EU, and if the search comes up showing that they are worthy of asylum, then you let the husband in, if not, show him the way back home - the mother and child(ren) would have the option to remain. Then lastly, you'd check into the young males, knowing 90%+ of them will be sent back. Hell, maybe even fabricate evidence that they are not worthy of asylum when they actually are - there is a limit to what a continent which has always had trouble with nationalities can accept in. I'm making a wild guess that even if you'd only let the women and children in, you would already go over your limit. But as I said, you can integrate them, opposed to the 20 something males.I could respect Merkel (or any other European leader) if she was practical instead of trying to put up a facade. Merkel could choose between Black and Grey, but no, she aimed at the Nobel Peace Prize and she went with the unaccaptable White.

I remember visiting our capital city back then. Migrants everywhere, couldn't even move. I didn't know better, so I choose the subway route to the train station, and to my horror, migrants after migrants after migrants... a huge, big, living mass of people, nothing I have ever seen before. And I was walking through the narrow little way they left open while drinking my Coke from McDonald's with a visible stuffed backpack on me. I was the very definition of "free kill." Migrants rioted in their shelter camps and many Hungarian people were quite agitated, and given how we have a strong right wing presence, it would not have neded well for anyone involved. My prime minister went with option Black, booting out everyone, men, women, children. I wasn't a fan of that, I'm still advocating for Grey, but since then, our cities have been freed up, and I'm just reading the news about which country had its fellow woman or little girl sexually assaulted this time. "The Advanced West" or so they say.

Merkel was weak, and her only strength was to stubbornly keep on fighting for the utopia, whch is the equivalent of me saying something stupid, and instead of admitting it, I'd just try to brute force it through. I guess 1+1=3 if you really put your mind to it. The only reason I am somewhat pitying her, is that these terror actions are always blamed on the migrants by the public which is not really fair, or at all. And as I said, everyone knew Brussel was planned to be attacked, so regardless of the question by whom, failing to protect the city paints a grim, grim future for Western-Europe.

I mean, basically we just silently agreed now that it's not the EUs job to solve this. Then we are back to square nothing, checking our favorite news feeds to see whether it's today that another W-European country got attacked. And while we wait, there is the migrant crisis to keep us entertained; less flashy than explosions, but our grandchildren will totally dig the fact that we can tell them about how we had seen through the slow, silent collapse of Europe! Not as cool as our grandparents war stories, but it is something.

Yes its shit like this that will make President Trump a reality especially closer to election time, and if that happens we all might want to think about moving to Australia to avoid the nuclear fallout of World War III. Terrorists don't scare me but President Trump does.
What happened in Brussels is horrible but I just feel like this is leading up to something really bad. The American political climate mixing with this consistent terror attack climate is a real scary state of affairs.

It really seems like it's up to the USA or Russia to save Europe, because our politicians clearly not give any fucks about what's been happening in recent years. They are just trying to win the popularity contest.

[reznovka]

As much as I'm overall a pro-migrant, there has to be a line. [...]

But for Germany it's hard to draw a line, because of our history and I am absolutely pro migrant and even I know that there will be people stealing, raping and murdering people, but who can say who will do such things and who won't?
In Germany we have a saying:"You just can take a look on the head, not inside." and as stupid as it may sound, it's still true.
A lot of refugees come without identity cards or passports, some lost it and other threw it away to be able to say that they are from Syria, but it's hard to tell.
I don't have a solution for the problem, but I still believe that open borders are better than closed ones.
I may be wrong, but at this moment I feel this way.
FYI: there is a school with approx. 300 refugees about 200 meters away from my house and I see them every day when I go to work and walk my dog. Nothing happened in my town so far and I think 99% of the people who left their country won't do any harm. They left because of people like the ones who bombed Brussels today. At least that's my opinion.