ENLARGING THE EUROPEAN UNION

            Since 1959, the United States of North America has extended from the western shores of the Atlantic Ocean halfway across the Pacific Ocean.  When Russia joins the European Union, that Union will extend from Ireland, traditionally a part of Europe, just off the eastern coast of the Atlantic ocean, to the northwestern shores of the Pacific Ocean  And across the Bering Straits, the European Union and the United States of North America will be only 82 kilometers—51 mies—apart.

          Since 1959, when Alaska and Hawaii became members of the United States, the distance between the eastern (Atlantic) coast of the United States of North America and its western-most states is roughly 6,000 miles.  The distance from the western-most (Atlantic coast) parts of  Europe  to the eastern (Pacific) coast of Siberia is roughly the same.

          The land mass of the USNA, including Alaska and Hawaii, is  3.8 million square miles.   The total land mass of the current EU is 1.7 million square miles—but add Siberia, and the enlarged EU has a land mass of  8.3 million square miles. And Siberia is a lot closer to European Europe than Hawaii is to North America. Most of the 6.6 million square miles Russia would bring into the EU,  is—like much of Alaska--frozen Siberian tundra, though a lot of that tundra  is rich in minerals, oil, and natural gas.

          The total population of the USNA is 313 million.  The total population of the EU is 507 million;  with Russia (and Siberia) the population of the EU will be 640 million.

          And what—beyond numbers—will this mean?  For Russia, it will mean that it and its citizens will have better access to European technology.  For the EU, it will mean that the current EU countries will have better access to Russian oil, natural gas, and other natural resources.  And it will mean enlarging significantly the greatest experiment in human political history, a voluntary union of  peoples.

          The USA was cobbled together out of revolution, purchase, war and conquest.  And it was built on the backs of black slavery and violent subjugatioin of the Native American population.  The European Union has been and continues to be built on application and invitation.  There is a huge difference—and it shows every day.  And what it shows—on the USA’s side—is the greatest obstacle, not just to world peace but to world-wide human justice.

          If Russia joins the European Union, mankind will take a real (and un-hyped) “giant step” forward—and that step will be taken on this planet.