Kosovo's Independence

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PRISTINA, Kosovo - The U.S. and major European powers recognized Kosovo on Monday, a day after the province's ethnic Albanian leaders declared independence from Serbia. Giddy Kosovars danced in the streets when they heard of the endorsements.

Kosovo's leaders sent letters to 192 countries seeking formal recognition and Britain, France, Germany and U.S. were among the countries that backed the request. But other European Union nations were opposed, including Spain which has battled a violent Basque separatist movement for decades.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin has argued that independence without U.N. approval would set a dangerous precedent for "frozen conflicts" across the former Soviet Union, where separatists in Chechnya and Georgia are agitating for independence.

My immediate thought was this: why don't we recognize the Confederate States of America? This is the exact same thing that the American Civil War was fought over, no matter how much everyone's dumbed-down American history classes tried to make it about the injustices of slavery. I don't see how we can justify recognizing Kosovo as an independent nation unless we simultaneously say that fighting our own Civil War was a mistake.

I'm not entirely on the side of Spain and Russia here when they say that this is a matter that should be taken up by the U.N, and they can't simply unilaterally state that they are a separate country. The article doesn't mention China, but I imagine that their fight with Taiwan puts them on the same side.

It might be that the Kosovars do have a right to be a separate country. I'm not familiar enough with the situation. But I don't believe that their methodology is correct, and it is apparently causing a lot of international tension.