CIA report: EU and NATO to dissolve

I don't doubt what the article below predicts, but I fear that it won't happen with a whimper.

This past weekend, in some correspondence regarding one particular European nation with a well-known policy analyst, I noted my own observations of "a deepening nationwide sense of depression due to increasingly limited economic opportunity, a collapse of the work ethic, rage over the quickening withdrawal of soft-socialism's promised benefits, rising crime-rates, smoldering disillusionment over the sour fruits of [one aspect of post-Cold-War consolidation], dawning awareness of the submersion of [their] national identity into the sea of pan-europeanism, and dismay over their imported labor's rude insistence on maintaining its own culture"...

(I'm leaving the country unnamed in the excerpt above for a variety of reasons, but mostly because the problem is not particular to any one country. In fact, it is remarkable that the same comments don't currently apply to the U.S.)

The article below suggests my perceptions aren't unique.

And historically, when the zeitgeist hits the fan in Europe, things happen. I hope I'm wrong, but some familiar (and chilling) scripts may be playing out.

CIA report: EU and NATO to dissolve

WASHINGTON, Jan. 16 (UPI) -- The European Union will break-up within 15 years as a result of its countries being dragged down by unsustainable welfare programs, a CIA report says.

The CIA report warns by 2020, Europe could be thrown into economic decline by its aging population and the post-1945 military alliances of NATO would disband, the Scotsman.com reported.

'The current EU welfare state is unsustainable and the lack of any economic revitalization could lead to the splintering or, at worst, disintegration of the EU, undermining its ambitions to play a heavyweight international role,' the report said.

Experts 'are dubious that the present political leadership is prepared to make even this partial break, believing a looming budgetary crisis in the next five years would be the more likely trigger for reform.'

Restrictive labor policies, a drop in birth rates and increased longevity would have devastating economic consequences for Europe, the report says."