Hutch,
I was just joking about the cookies

The European Union was and is a good idea. We have had over seventy years of peace over here, with a notable exception in the not-so-United Kingdom (you know, that union of Great Britain and
Northern Ireland that just voted to leave the EU).
Main problem is that it's no longer the union of Schuman, Churchill, Hallstein, De Gasperi, Delors and other
fathers of Europe. Delors had a vision, he was the architect of a better Europe, but among his followers, the Italian guy was doing ok but two other ones were known more for their
serious alcohol problems than for having brilliant political ideas. Besides, in recent decades Europe (and everybody else) is under the attack from the financial sector (sitting in London and NY), and from a handful of big industrial players. National governments and the EC are not in the best positions to defend their citizens, plus it is not always clear if they really want to defend them (google for
amazon juncker or
barroso latsis to get an idea...). Nonetheless, I am still convinced that the great majority of the EU apparatus in Brussels believe in what they are doing, and try their best to make Europe a better place than, for example, the U.S.
Re NATO, I agree. Putin is not the nicest guy on Earth, but
this map speaks a clear language, too (btw @anunitu: never seen that logo before

).