Watching Europe Unravel

Looks like there's a better than average chance that Great Britain will leave the EU. That could very well be one of major nails in the European Union's coffin. The union was suffering economically before it got hit with a major refugee crisis. There are a number of member countries where membership no longer makes any sense. Greece is the big one, but Portugal, Spain and Italy aren't that far behind.

We can't talk about the EU without mentioning NATO. There's speculation that Russia could take over the Balkan countries in 60 hours. The situation is supposed to get better sometime in 2017. That just tells me that 2016 is especially dangerous.

Poland is certainly paying attention. It's going all out to increase its tank force and is acquiring other armored vehicles. They have their own tank factories but are also buying Leopard tanks. The country is also addressing gaps in its air defenses. They are acting like a country that's going to need all that military hardware.

To make things even more interesting there's crazy talk in the Pentagon. Some planners believe that tactical nukes could be used on the battlefield without it escalating. Now I might not be a military genius, but just maybe using tactical nukes might soon lead to strategic nukes? That's been the assumption in the past.

So we have a perfect storm of factors: economic, political and military. One can only hope that cooler heads will prevail.

-Sixbears