The horrors that are taking place on the border between Hungary and Serbia:
Europeans were not to blame for anything that had happened in the lives of the refugees previously.
But they are to blame for this. This is an absolute disgrace. And there was absolutely no need to create the horrible situation where people are kept behind barbed wire and hit with water guns.
This all looks like rich, bored people are trying to entertain themselves by luring the refugees to the border and then assaulting them with water guns. I’m not saying anybody had this specific goal in mind but this is the result.
I’m sickened to my stomach by these horrible developments. I will never believe that there is no better alternative.
The EU leadership proved to be not even bad but simply absent.
Clarissa's Blog 
For the EU to maintain any credibility as a legitimate international political entity, the EU’s de facto leaders (Germany, France) have got to enforce long-standing EU-wide rules about placement of immigrants/refugees. If individual member countries like Hungary are allowed to thumb their nose at the rules, then the concept of “Union” is a fantasy.
Merkel, who usually keeps a cool head about her, has handled this issue very badly. Her initial statements about how Germany would gladly take in an essentially endless stream of immigrants for years to come was an impossible promise that opened the floodgates to this disaster.
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“Merkel, who usually keeps a cool head about her”
What she’s actually known for is not addressing issues until they go away or someone else takes the blame.
But she’s basically made the single worst decision by a national leader in …… how long?
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I should point out. International regulations say that refugees are supposed to register in the first safe country they reach.
But since a majority of the young men in the picture are not in fact Syrian they refused to be registered in Greece and for some reason were allowed to go ahead anyway (instead of being put back on Turkish soil). I agree that it’s a disgrace but the disgrace is that it was allowed to get this far in the first place. I’ve been saying for years (as have many, many others) that current asylum rules are completely outdated and that has gone a long way to create this mess.
The last I knew the Hungarians were not turning away those that had previously registered just those that were trying to illegally cross the border so they could register in Germany (and/or disappear into ethnic enclaves).
Again, Hungary is basically just following European law, as a Schengen entry point it is supposed to keep the border secure (free movement within Schengen can only work with secure borders on the Schengen zone.
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I absolutely agree that these asylum policies are insane. There is no logic and no organizing principle in what the EU is doing. You can’t just say to people, “Come on over, borders are open, we welcome everybody” and then literally a few days, not even weeks later, greet them with water guns and barbed wire. There is no way of explaining to people how the refugees who came yesterday are better than those who came today.
It can’t go from “come, ye huddled masses” to “fuck off, losers” within a week. I get a feeling that this is more about newspaper pictures than anything else. Europeans see a sad photo of refugees, feel pity and adjust policy. Then the memory of the sad photo evaporates, and they tighten the border. Then another sad photo comes, and so on.
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Any thinking person knows the flow has to be stopped sooner or later, it’s not going to stop on its own (that is completely obvious) and the point where the flow is stopped is going to be upsetting for all concerned.
Again I dont’ see how Merkel’s political legacy (or career to be frank) can last much longer.
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Of course. Not even the most optimistic folks can expect that entire continents can be resettled in Europe. But the blame for today’s shameful situation is on those who announced open borders without thinking about the moment when the borders will have to be closed.
There was absolutely no need to get the situation to this shameful point. A reasonable immigration policy should have been created years ago.
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In other words, Angela Merkel and her enablers….
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Hillary has done way too much to generate the image of cold an unemotional.
I don’t know much about Merkel but I don’t think this was an emotional thing on her part (although she worked hard to make it look this way.) I believe she got into the role of Europe’s boss way too much and couldn’t let go.
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“Again I dont’ see how Merkel’s political legacy (or career to be frank) can last much longer.”
Merkel’s longevity is largely a product of the other political parties being awful. The German Social Democrats have some decent politicians, but they keep passing over the good ones and putting total idiots and buffoons into the leadership positions. The Greens also have some good folks, but they have to spend all of their time managing the idiots and buffoons in their party. The Left party is nothing but idiots and buffoons, the Free Democrats are just a bunch of assholes in $10,000 suits, and the Christian Socialists are just a bunch of assholes in Lederhosen.
Merkel will be chancellor until one of the other parties gets its act together and selects a half-way decent politician to lead.
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“I get a feeling that this is more about newspaper pictures than anything else. Europeans see a sad photo of refugees, feel pity and adjust policy. Then the memory of the sad photo evaporates, and they tighten the border. Then another sad photo comes, and so on.”
Welcome to political debate in the post nation state era. If there are no nation states then most members of most countries will not think in terms of “Is this good for the long term interests of my country?” but rather in vague emotional states that change every few mintues and are spiced with talking points that the user doesn’t understand.
90 % of the public debate I hear about this issue (on both sides) can safely be described as ‘duck speak’ from 1984, a series of set phrases with no real meaning attached.
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Now I’m wondering how Merkel’s catastrophic mistake (really it’s hard to exaggerate just how bad it was) will affect Clinton’s chances.
I’ve alreayd seen comments to the effect “That’s what happens when you put a women in charge” and lots of snark about how she let her short term emotional reaction cloud and overcome her thinking about long term political realities.
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\ I don’t know much about Merkel but I don’t think this was an emotional thing on her part
I am sure it was not emotional at all, which leaves me with no explanation at all for her behavior. If somebody is interested in Merkel, I loved this article:
The Quiet German
The astonishing rise of Angela Merkel, the most powerful woman in the world.
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/12/01/quiet-german
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She got used to chiding Greeks and Spaniards for not being hard-working and frugal enough. When the opportunities to do that dwindled, she found a pretext to chide others for not being compassionate enough. The didactic pose is not easy to let go.
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