EU could lead to war
From Mr John R. Holiday Sir: My earliest memory (aged two) is of being bombed, so I am at least as interested as Franz Metzger (Letters, 7 April) in `no more wars within Europe'. However, I do not agree with his implication that creation of the European Union is the only option to achieve this end. Indeed, I would go so far as to suggest that the kind of 'Europe' we are being pushed into is more likely to cause war than prevent it.
At the time of Maastricht I was reading The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government by Jefferson Davis. I was struck by the similarity between our present position in Europe and the situation in the USA in the years leading up to the war between the states, aka the American Civil War. In both cases we have those who insist on pushing ahead with one form of unity (federalism) while ignoring the alternative favoured by others (mutual agreement between sovereign states). We all know how their differences were settled in the American case.
If we compare our present situation with that of the 1930s, society today is more cosmopolitan and many more of the people of Europe travel widely. We know more of one another and are more prosperous, better educated and less narrowly nationalistic than we were then. I submit that there is no danger of war in Europe unless 'the drive towards a European Union' continues along its present path. If the people of Europe are pushed unwillingly into a union designed to serve the interests of an unelected bureaucracy, with no opt-out path, I believe we could see civil unrest leading to armed rebellion within 20 years.
John R. Holiday
Bridge of Allan, Scotland
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