Balkanizing America

Kosovo has declared itself an independent nation. This has been a Serbian province for centuries. However more than 90% of Kosovo's population of two million people are ethnic Albanian. Their faith is Muslim. The remaining Serbian population of 6 ½ million people is Christian. The hatred between Christians and Muslins resulted in the Balkan War in the late 1990s. Ultimately there was bombing by NATO in 1999 to stop the fighting between the two groups.

Within hours of the declaration, Russia called an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council for later on Sunday and said it would ask it to declare Kosovo's claim to independence "null and void" -- a request that was unlikely to succeed as the U.S., France and Britain all have vetoes in the Security Council and support Kosovo's independence bid.

Meanwhile in the U.S.A. the Latino population, which is primarily Mexican, has been growing for decades. In 1970, California's 2.4 million Latinos represented less than one-eighth of the state's total population. The 7.5 million Latinos counted in the 1990 census represented a quarter of California's residents. By 2005, more than a third of all Californians were projected to be Latino. The city of Los Angeles is now 40% Latino.

Could the Latino population in the southern part of United States decide that they want to succeed and form their own nation or perhaps reunite with Mexico? This is not as far fetched as you might think. The primary Latino groups deny that they support any idea of separation from our country according to their web sites. Those groups are National Council of La Raza (NCLR), MEChA (Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán or Chicano Student Movement of Aztlán), NCLR claims it does not support “Reconquista”, returning the southern USA to Mexico. They acknowledge that the accusation does exist. They could change their position on this subject in an instant.

Would the United States go to war to stop a succession? The answer is yes! The Civil War defined the view that this nation is indivisible. Why then is it acceptable for Kosovo to separate from Serbia? I wish I knew the answer.