A brief word on Brexit

I agree with much of what Ilya Somin has written about Brexit, and only have one thought to add. It is, as Ilya writes, a "victory for nationalistic, xenophobic forces opposed to free trade and migration," and it is pretty clear that much of the momentum behind Brexit came from anti-immigrant sentiment unleashed in response to the wave of emigrants from (primarily) Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq. And it could well signal the beginning of Europe's unraveling; without the U.K., there's even less to counterbalance the influence of the Germans in European decision-making, and that is not an attractive prospect for many other member nations.

This all makes me think that radical Islam has—perhaps inadvertently—uncovered a most powerful weapon in its continuing war on western civilization: make your own people so miserable by your brutality and your cruelty that they will leave everything behind to try to go elsewhere, even with the foreknowledge that the trip is terribly dangerous and likely to lead to some squalid refugee camp or worse; then, open up your borders and let them out and watch Western institutions break under the strain. It would be a terrible shame if this strategy works, but I fear that Brexit is evidence that it might.