Quote Originally Posted by MattC86 View Post
Well, it's not just the Russians who oppose it. The Georgians can't be too happy (South Ossetia), the Spanish aren't recognizing it (Basques), Sri Lanka (Tamil), etc., etc. There's plenty of countries that wouldn't like to see a long-suffering ethnic minority region get its independence. . .

. . .in 15 years would we want the Hispanics to declare Californian independence?

I just consider it a positive sign that Kostunica announced that regardless of Serbian anger over the decision, there would be no violence . . .the Kosovar President said the same regarding the Serbian minority in Kosovo. Given that much of humanity's misery seems to have arisen from the Balkans over the centuries, it's nothing short of an enormous shift that this is happening peacefully.

Matt
Matt, I think you're right...both leaders said the same thing and it was good...but I can tell you right now, that if that happens in practice, it will be a miracle...the Kosovo Serbs will never ever accept independence. Most will eventually leave when they realize the VJ and MUP are not going to cross the border...but this is not over...although I think an independent Kosovo is good for Balkans stability, there will be pains...RS in Bosnia will use this to join Serbia...partition will occur in Kosovo with the north leaving and maybe western Serbia rejoining Kosovo (it was broken off by Tito and given to Serbia in 1946 as current northern Kosovo was part of Serbia and given to Kosovo in an effort to dilute the Albanian majority in Kosovo), and eventually the question of whether Kosovo will join Albania and what the Albanians in Macedonia will do, etc.

As for the other minority groups, well, this is the way the world works...it's history and it's not going to change...despite hyper globalists telling us that we're moving to bigger bodies and the nation state is dead.

I won't deny this, but I'm all for Catalonia getting independence from Spain...peacefully though.