Kosovo and Seceshes
The Territorial Imperative that is so powerful and destructive in all the beasts of the executive mansions and the fields and the jungles and the polar wastes of the world is now making itself seen in another severe test of "whether this nation or any other nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure," as Mr. Lincoln so eloquently said of the U.S. in his Gettysburg Address.
Kosovo has finally carried out its longstanding threat to cut itself loose from Serbia, much to the anger of Serbia, Russia, China, and Vietnam, among others on the one side, and on the other the U.S., Germany, France, Great Britain, and Italy.
This secession can't help but be logical, in view of the fact that 90 percent of the Kosovars are not of Serbian extraction but are Albanian instead, and it makes no sense that such an overwhelming majority should be lorded over by another ethnicity that has only 5 percent of its people inside the borders, just because of some battle that was fought in Kosovo many centuries ago. And even more in view of the fact that the Serbians were highly vicious toward the Kosovars when Yugoslavia broke up a couple of decades ago, and they were only forced to pull back and dig themselves when Bill Clinton and Wesley Clark sent over some planes and dropped bombs.
I was very much interested in wanting to find out why Russia and the others were so incensed at Kosovo's declaration. The major argument they make is the claim that it will set a bad example, because there are many other populations around the world who would dearly love to do the same thing. And that is surely true, though I don't see how that makes Kosovo's independence unjustified and undeserved.
The first trouble spot they have in mind must be Kurdistan, that hoped-for place inside the borders of Turkey, Iraq, and Iran. But Russia, itself the huge remnant of the once gigantic Soviet Union, from which many now independent countries have happily detached themselves, still has other territories that would likewise like to escape its grip, at least one of which a Russia in its right mind ought to be glad to see go -- Chechnya. And then there's Tibet, Sri Lanka, Palestine, the Basques, and other places that escape my mind, though I can think of various forms even of the U.S. South that have never stopped entertaining the idea of secession, first broached and then bloodily quashed as long ago as the middle 1800's, though I would bet that now there are many, in the North as well as elsewhere, who privately wonder if it wasn't such a bad idea after all.
Kosovo should make it. For all the growling of the bears, there can't be much of an appetite in that region for a resumption of horrible events as recent as the last days of the 1900's.
Kosovo has finally carried out its longstanding threat to cut itself loose from Serbia, much to the anger of Serbia, Russia, China, and Vietnam, among others on the one side, and on the other the U.S., Germany, France, Great Britain, and Italy.
This secession can't help but be logical, in view of the fact that 90 percent of the Kosovars are not of Serbian extraction but are Albanian instead, and it makes no sense that such an overwhelming majority should be lorded over by another ethnicity that has only 5 percent of its people inside the borders, just because of some battle that was fought in Kosovo many centuries ago. And even more in view of the fact that the Serbians were highly vicious toward the Kosovars when Yugoslavia broke up a couple of decades ago, and they were only forced to pull back and dig themselves when Bill Clinton and Wesley Clark sent over some planes and dropped bombs.
I was very much interested in wanting to find out why Russia and the others were so incensed at Kosovo's declaration. The major argument they make is the claim that it will set a bad example, because there are many other populations around the world who would dearly love to do the same thing. And that is surely true, though I don't see how that makes Kosovo's independence unjustified and undeserved.
The first trouble spot they have in mind must be Kurdistan, that hoped-for place inside the borders of Turkey, Iraq, and Iran. But Russia, itself the huge remnant of the once gigantic Soviet Union, from which many now independent countries have happily detached themselves, still has other territories that would likewise like to escape its grip, at least one of which a Russia in its right mind ought to be glad to see go -- Chechnya. And then there's Tibet, Sri Lanka, Palestine, the Basques, and other places that escape my mind, though I can think of various forms even of the U.S. South that have never stopped entertaining the idea of secession, first broached and then bloodily quashed as long ago as the middle 1800's, though I would bet that now there are many, in the North as well as elsewhere, who privately wonder if it wasn't such a bad idea after all.
Kosovo should make it. For all the growling of the bears, there can't be much of an appetite in that region for a resumption of horrible events as recent as the last days of the 1900's.
posted by Carl (aka Sofarsogoo) | 9:20 AM
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