Future of the European Union

[Fragony]

The UK has been allowed to leave not just in theory but in practice. Therefore any country is free to leave at any point and with that freedom of choice provides leverage.

I initially thought that the Tory's were going to do exactly that when the Brexit vote happened. Well, we must leave unless you can make an offer that we can give back to the people as a show of good faith towards a fairer union.
To be honest, I have not followed Brexit that much, but either the EU was OK with UK leaving which just perplexes me because that seems like a loss no matter how they spin it OR the Tories really screwed up by going straight to "we're out".

Future votes to leave the EU and subsequent fallout will be handled very differently.

Very differently yes, that is why there can not be such a thing as a unified army, it is a mostly useless bureaucracy that has little reason to exist, but will fight to stay alive

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Very differently yes, that is why there can not be such a thing as a unified army, it is a mostly useless bureaucracy that has little reason to exist, but will fight to stay alive

Fragony:

Some of the pro EU crowd no doubt hope that a 'unified army' will be unifying of Europe. That soldiers, trained to high standard and enculturated to serve the whole entity rather than a part of it, enculturated to support and defend the compact that is the EU and not its constituents, will yield a steadily growing number of citizens and leaders whose allegiance is to the entity of the whole and not of the particulars. This is not an impossible goal.

However, to really enact this kind of enculturation, the EU would need to conduct all of the training of such forces for the first several years of service and would have to put formations together without regard for place of origin -- stapling together a "unified" army from extant formations in the existing NATO force structure will not accomplish any meaningful cultural change -- it would be a patchwork at best and a Frankenstein's monster at worst.

Given your adamant opposition to the EU, I would think you would WANT them to enact and deploy that patchwork. I can think of few things that would undermine the EU more effectively then the EU leadership sending Scandinavian (for e.g.) troops to force compliance from Catalonia or deploying Poles to require Sweden to accept a greater share of immigrant refugees etc. That's the kind of 'foreign occupation' thing most guaranteed to place the population in opposition to EU leadership.

[Fragony]

Fragony:

Some of the pro EU crowd no doubt hope that a 'unified army' will be unifying of Europe. That soldiers, trained to high standard and enculturated to serve the whole entity rather than a part of it, enculturated to support and defend the compact that is the EU and not its constituents, will yield a steadily growing number of citizens and leaders whose allegiance is to the entity of the whole and not of the particulars. This is not an impossible goal.

However, to really enact this kind of enculturation, the EU would need to conduct all of the training of such forces for the first several years of service and would have to put formations together without regard for place of origin -- stapling together a "unified" army from extant formations in the existing NATO force structure will not accomplish any meaningful cultural change -- it would be a patchwork at best and a Frankenstein's monster at worst.

Given your adamant opposition to the EU, I would think you would WANT them to enact and deploy that patchwork. I can think of few things that would undermine the EU more effectively then the EU leadership sending Scandinavian (for e.g.) troops to force compliance from Catalonia or deploying Poles to require Sweden to accept a greater share of immigrant refugees etc. That's the kind of 'foreign occupation' thing most guaranteed to place the population in opposition to EU leadership.

The EU has a very high probability to turn into a whacked dyspotia, one that was never needed. Itś a political project at first, free trade already was there. Congratulate us with a new aristocracy

[Husar]

The EU has a very high probability to turn into a whacked dyspotia, one that was never needed. Itś a political project at first, free trade already was there. Congratulate us with a new aristocracy

No it's not. It's a wonderful utopia that we desperately need. It's a project of the people at first and a natural consequence of free trade and a love for peace and prosperity for all.

[Fragony]

No it's not. It's a wonderful utopia that we desperately need. It's a project of the people at first and a natural consequence of free trade and a love for peace and prosperity for all.

No it is a parasitical overhead that gets into your pants