The Schengen Agreement

[FlagDayNCO]

After I left the Real Army in 1992, I resided in The Netherlands with my Dutch wife... the First Mrs. Flag Day NCO.

FIrst of all, that tri-border region of NL, Belgium and Germany is a very unique area. Those people are more Germanic than anything and freely moved across the borders for years. Families have members on all sodes of the borders. Across the street may be in another country.

When stationed in West Germany, we noted that the various provinces of Germnay had their unique cultures. Same goes for NL and Belgium. Belgium was sort of split in tow; half leaning towards France and half towards NL.

The Netherlands was a truly unique experience. For such a small nation, the various regions had unique cultures. Friesland was way up North and the people there even spoke a language that wasn't Dutch. Schools taught lessons different than the typical Dutch system. My brother-in-law's wife was from there. My wife's parents were from Breda (south, near Germany) and had differing political and social views than the people from the Randstad, which is the larg "ring" that made up the most densly populated cities.

I'll say that the border checks were never a hassle. Border agents would board trains and check passengers as the train traveled. I never had an issue, either with American identification or Dutch identification. They would take interest in Muslims, as though Turkey was a European nation, many people claiming toi be from there were actually from other Muslim nations.

And yes, the majority of the violent crime taking place in Amsterdam was by Muslims. Been that way for decades.

Most abductions were traced back to Muslim gangs. I say Muslim, as they could be Moroccan, Lebanese, Saudi, Turkish, etc. Drugs and weapons came up, abductees and cash went down. I doubt it has changed much, except the routes have spread out all over Europe.

What I found interesting is most Dutch people identified that the problems were the Muslims coming into their nation, and the Citizens were getting more angst because of it. This did not slow down the Socialists and their drive to eliminate the individual national identities. Sounds like America today. The political and the powerful have their agenda and the people be damned.