Start of WW3 equals with nothing anymore to see :cry: but I'm pretty sure it's not going to happen, maybe at a way later time.
The EU today functions much like a large bank with heavy compliance layers. Twenty years ago, you could submit a mortgage, have it assessed, approved, conditions issued, and funds released in a day — a chain of 4–5 people. Now, the workflow is fragmented across committees, auditors, regulators, and multiple approval gates. Every step is procedural rather than discretionary, so throughput slows from days to months.
The same dynamic applies politically and militarily. Decision‑making is process‑bound rather than outcome‑driven. Common sense takes a back seat to documentation, consensus building, legal frameworks, and procedural justification. Policy triggers define actions more than context. In a fast-moving scenario, the system can keep moving along the predefined track — even if that track is heading straight for the metaphorical iceberg.
It’s not that anyone wants escalation; it’s that a bureaucracy like this has a very hard time adjusting quickly. They probably have flow charts with all sorts of responses — but “de‑escalate” is rarely one of them.
The more I think about it, the EU is like a big bank competing with another big bank — Russia. Staff aren’t allowed to talk to the other bank: no collusion, no price fixing, no secrets handed over, always strict competition. That’s how policy works internally, and in fast-moving crises, it makes flexibility even harder when you’re dealing with institutionalized narrow-mindedness
This post was edited by ferdia on Dec 5 2025 08:43am