By Patrick J. Buchanan
When the Soviet Union disintegrated, most Americans likely had never heard of Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan or Turkmenistan.
Yet the ethnonationalism of these Asian peoples, boiling to the surface after centuries of tsarist and communist repression, helped tear apart one of the great empires of history.
There swiftly followed the collapse of Yugoslavia.
Yet, if one knew nothing of the Habsburg and Ottoman empires or the First and Second Balkan Wars of 1912-1913, one would likely have been surprised by the sudden emergence of Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Kosovo on the map of Europe.
What the splintering of the Soviet Union and of a Yugoslavia whose baptismal certificate dated to the Paris peace conference of 1919 revealed was the accuracy of Arthur Schlesinger’s insight in his 1991 Disuniting of America: Reflections on a Multicultural Society:
“Nationalism remains after two centuries the most vital political emotion in the world — far more vital than social ideologies such a communism or fascism or even democracy. … Within nation-states, nationalism takes the form of ethnicity or tribalism.”
Ethnic ties, Schlesinger wrote, might prove more powerful and historically important than the forces of globalism and democratism, which then seemed ascendant. He only neglected to mention religious faith as often a “far more vital” emotion than ideology.
And though the Iraq elections have been hailed as a triumph of democracy, they would seem to prove him right.
Kurds voted for Kurds, Shia for Shia, Sunni for Sunni on a slate led by Ayad Allawi, a secular Shia who campaigned on a unity ticket.
The election results resemble a national census.
In the struggle between Allawi and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to put together a government, both are courting the Kurds, whose near-term goal is Kirkuk, control of which would mean control of 40 percent of Iraq’s oil reserves. If the Kurds, who have been forcing their way into Kirkuk and pushing Arabs out, can annex the city, they will have the economic base of a Kurdistan nation, the dream of a people whose kinfolk are spread across Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran.
The Kurds are using democratic means for ethnonational ends.
Maliki’s strength is in the Shia south and the capital, Baghdad, that has been slowly cleansed of Sunni.
Among Allawi’s weaknesses is that the Shia majority may not support as Iraq’s prime minister a Shia secularist whose strength comes from a Sunni minority that was the bulwark of the Baath Party of Saddam Hussein.
Among the Shia are leaders who spent the Iran-Iraq war in exile in Iran, and whose ties to the Iranian Shia seem stronger than any ties to their Sunni countrymen.
Hence, as we indulge in self-congratulation for having brought democracy to Iraq, Iraqis seem to be using the process to advance ethnonational and sectarian ends that are the antithesis of U.S. democracy. We see democracy as an end in itself. Many in that part of the world see it as a means of establishing their ascendancy and hegemony over other religious and ethnic minorities.
In 2005, George W. Bush, then promoting global democracy as the answer to all of mankind’s ills and an essential precondition for any permanent security for the United States, demanded free elections in Egypt, Lebanon and Palestine. The winners: the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas. A perplexed Bush refused to accept the results or recognize and talk to the winners.
Before the invasion, most Americans were probably unaware of the tribal and sectarian divisions in Iraq that may yet produce a new Saddam to keep that country from coming apart in sectarian and civil war.
And how many Americans were aware of the ethnic divisions in Afghanistan, among Tajiks, Uzbeks, Hazaras and Pashtun, before we invaded? A program is underway to bring more Pashtun into the army and police, lest the Pashtun in the south feel invaded and occupied by alien tribes.
Globalization is no longer on the march, but on the defensive. Economic nationalism is rising. Across the Third World, we see an upsurge of ethnonationalism and fundamentalism, especially among the Islamic peoples. From Nigeria to Sudan to Mindanao, Muslims battle Christians, as Christians are persecuted in Egypt, Iraq and Pakistan.
In India and Thailand, Muslims battle Hindu and Buddhists. In the Northern Caucasus, they fight Russians.
Ethnonationalism, that relentless drive of peoples to secede and dwell apart, to establish their own nation-state, where their faith is predominant, their language spoken, their heroes and history revered, and they rule to the exclusion of all others, is rampant.
In China, Tibetans fight assimilation and the mass migration of Han Chinese into what was their country, as do the Uighurs in the west who dream of an East Turkestan breaking away and taking its place among the nations of the world.
In speaking of the rising tribalism abroad, Schlesinger added, “The ethnic upsurge in America, far from being unique, partakes of the global fever.”
Indeed, separatism and secessionism seem to be in the air.
Related posts:
- New Tribe Rising?By Patrick J. Buchanan “Is white the new black?” So asks Kelefa Sanneh in the...
- Who’s Behind the Proxy WarsBy Patrick J. Buchanan Iran is conducting a proxy war against the United States in...
- Black Sea Warsby Patrick J. Buchanan In August, the Georgian navy seized a Turkish tanker carrying fuel...
- No More Undeclared WarsBy Patrick J. Buchanan – October 23, 2001 FDR “lied us into war because he...
- Bitter Fruits of Mideast WarsBy Patrick J. Buchanan Impending today are two of the most critical decisions Barack Obama...
- Remembering Wars and Warriorsby Patrick J. Buchanan Since America became a nation, four of her greatest generals have...
- 2003: A Year of Wars?by Patrick J. Buchanan – December 23, 2002 With the president and Secretary Powell joining...
Vote Average: 4.94 Stars!
Loading ...
Nationalism, is to me a foreign, and Eurpoean term. We American purists, made a social obligation to eradicate tribe, and chiefs. When the world copies they fail. Eastern Europe is detrimental to our way, not because we are ‘anglo’ or w.a.s.p.s, but because we took the Magna Carta to its logical conclusion.
Good History lesson Pat.
What this country needs is a good, no great nationalist leader that will make us Americans again, not globalists.
Would anyone want to be a team member of a football team that did not represent a region or school. It is the human competitive spirit. We want our team to win. Maybe sometimes in the distant future we can have Earth Vs another inter-Galactic team. Then we can think we are Global in that sense.
Right now, I am an American and I want to see my team prevail. Not only for the pride of the win, but also survival. It is in our nature to want our on kind around us. That is not prejudice. It is nature and how we survived as a species.
If we stop survival behaviour, we will not survive.
The essence of Pat’s article is correct, in my opinion. It would appear that the only place ethno-nationalism isn’t predominantly showing itself (at present) is in the good old USA.
That’s good in one sense and not so good in another: The United States of America had something that not many countries ever had: A Constitution that saw the individual as a sovereign entity. In other words, once ethnic immigrants to America realized that individual effort and hard work could advance their life styles, they tended to become Americanized in a constitutionally unified manner.
This is not to say that most ethnic people didn’t group together because of their language and religion – they certainly did – but excluding roughneck gangs one ethnic group didn’t war with other ethnic groups as a policy in spite of their differences.
The difference in our late Constitution and most other countries’ constitutions can be seen in the fact that one could travel throughout the several states without fear of different interpretations of the laws. Our Constitution tended to unite us as a people and that is what gave America its national strength.
Yes, there is disparity when evil state politicians reap their ill-gained benefits from their own citizens but this disparity is an aberration and not a norm: Evil politicians go to jail when their evil ways are uncovered.
But the down-side of what America has become, since we no longer have a Constitution, is worse than ethno-nationalistic animosity. We (Americans) are like a huge ship with a damaged rudder and we are beginning to flounder in a dark sea of despair. Our moral compass has been cracked and sea-water is beginning to erode our directional needle.
Where most large countries have one or two prominent nationalities, America has every nationality known to man residing between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Once all of these nationalities find that the American dream has turned into a nightmare they will transform into ethnic groups for mutual protection not unlike the roughneck gangs prevalent in every major city in the US.
The prognosis, for the once great USA, isn’t encouraging. These next few years will be critical: If the world does not explode into World War Three, civil war is likely to be our legacy right here in the USA, brought to you by uncaring politicians, world bankers, dual citizenship Americans, ignorant citizens and other evil people.
If you are of a religious bent, I suggest that prayer has more value now than does fiat currency.
WW
… what i’m saying is autonomy trumps such things. We all know that White America doesnt amount to the utmost liberty. The exception, to the once held rule is that — white is right, yet grey areas exist.
I have some reservations, Pat. First, moslems in Pakistan are not beating up on Christians there. There aren’t enough Christians there. And the few there are tend to keep a low profile. And they tend to belong to the underclass (the missionaries found it easier to convert them). Perhaps you’re thinking of the high-profile bombings of one or two churches in Islamabad, designed for the diplomatic community.
Second, with regard to countries like Kazakhstan, about 40% of the population is ethnically Russian. When I was there I didn’t see much of any tension between Kazakh and Russian, nor any pent-up ethnonationalism on the part of suppressed Kazakhs (indeed, they looked back with nostalgia to the time of Khrushchev and Brezhnev). This observation allows me to segue to an important point: much of the so-called ethnonationalism (for example, in Serbia) has been created and stoked up by self-serving demagogues. It did not previously exist. Serbians, Croats, and Bosnians lived cheek-by-jowl with one another and they passed the acid test of peaceful co-existence — intermarriage.
Ethnonationalism — or any kind of nationalism — is not some historical verity. It is a creation of the last two centuries or so. An “imagined community,” in the words of Benedict Anderson. One of the many symptoms of our disorienting modernity.
Please update the link from Drudge Report to come directly to this article.
Pat is right on with this one. When a nation falls on hard times, and people are hungry they tend to blame people who are different from themselves. The result is either civil war or a tyrant. There is a way to prevent a breakup of America as our economy crumbles due to our corrupt government. We need to abolish all antidiscrimination laws so people can segregate voluntarily and peacefully.
GOPers tend to revere Ronald Reagan, yet his amnesty in 1986 legalized millions of illegals who are HOSTILE to the White majority.
The Dispossessed Majority cannot look to the current GOP for survival. PJB has always been RIGHT on the issues that MATTER.
Right now Obama and Schumer and Lindsay Graham are working to legalize the perhaps 40 million illegals within the borders of the US. This will be the seventh amnesty since Regan’s.
LEGAL immigration is the greatest danger, the Dems and their GOP enablers like McCain et al are planning to TRIPLE the legal immigration yearly.
The change in immigration law was DELIBERATE and MEANT to replace the White majority with people of color. The history of that is here:
http://www.csulb.edu/%7Ekmacd/review-AR.html
It is often said that when the old immigration policy was scrapped in 1965, scarcely anyone knew, and no one predicted, that the new law would change the racial makeup of the country. Prof. MacDonald disputes this, arguing that this had been the objective of Jewish groups from the beginning.
The main reason I go to the Drudge Report every Tuesday and Friday is to read Patrick Buchanan’s column. But I don’t want Pat’s column after the Censors at Human Events have “edited” them. I want the UNCENSORED version—ALL the time. Please have the Drudge Report send Buchanan readers HERE to read Pat’s latest columns. Human Events should NOT be rewarded for engaging in devious censorship. I don’t want anything to do with the Human Events Censored Website.
Rebelforce48
I’ll second that: HE’s Buchanan blog has become a forum for Zionist propaganda. I post there as a counter balance to that Zionist propaganda but the ship is sinking and I may have to put on a life jacket and bail out soon.
WW
Good article by Pat, but not far enough?…….”Multiculturalism” is a farce!….It don’t, never has, and will never work….IMO, Nationalism comes in a variety of strengths from the dewey eyed pledge of alligence to the “The enemy of my enemy is my friend” variety? Most Americans realize not, that “A man convinced against his will, is of the same oppinion still!”……When Lincoln became a tyrant against the constitution, inorder to “Impose” unity, through force on the “Confederate States Of America”, he got nothing!…..Reconstruction was akin to getting a palestinian to agree to terms with an Israeli, if he could have a piece of bread for his child?(Don’t expect to understand if not a Southerner?)……..Irishmen faught beside Englishmen in wars constantly for the Empire, but still yearned for their OWN CULTURE!
Nationalism is temporary, but CULTURE is forever!…..The ONLY reason that the so-called-melting-pot-of America worked, was because the cultures were seperated. Even in the “Bastion Of Northeast Liberalism”, there was China Town, Little Italy, Harlem, Israel Base Camp #1, etc,etc………Then JFK and LBJ introduces the “Great Society”, which is driven by the jews, which are the absolute most cultural oriented hypocrites in the damn world! Nationalism only works hand in hand with cultue, when not being “Liberated” by some out of control Empire, killing more civilians than what they perceive to be a threat to their Empire!…..Just as Kurds want to be Kurds, Georgians want to be Georgians and Alabamians want to be Alabamians!
Which is why our Founding Father’s constructed a true “Constitutional Republic” called “These United States”, instead of Lincoln’s “The United States”!……Democracy worship is a joke!….If not, we would all vote the Mexicans back to Mexico!
The fourth paragraph from the bottom, “Ethnonationalism…” is just breathtaking. You know how to drive home a point!
Tom Ponder:
Detroit should call one of their mid-priced American made autos “The Point”. Just think of all the people who could finally drive home ‘the point’!
Good idea?
WW
Bigbadwolf, the word ‘nation’ according to the Oxford English Dictionary means: “breed, stock, race, nation.” The word nation in the Bible is translated from the Greek word “ethnos,” from which get our word “ethnic.” And as Genesis 10:5 reveals, nations (ethnicities if you prefer) have existed since the flood. It is not a mere “imagined community” birthed through modernity.
Ethnonationalism existed long before two centuries ago.
Once you understand the LAST thing the Zionist criminals who rule America wants is a large ethnically WHITE majority who might wake up and begin to ahem, er….deal with them. Then you’ll see exactly why these shysters want another 40 million aliens legalized.
It’s called ‘divide and conquer’. If you take a look at the World you’ll see Zionist Cabals in EVERY ethnically white nation doing the same thing, with the same objective.
We’re at war and not yet aware of it.
A very insightful article was posted on Veterans Affairs that likely will interest readers and posters on this site. Here is the URL to copy and past in the address bar:
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2010/03/16/gordon-duff-u-s-tells-israel-you-are-undermining-america-endangering-troops/
There is good news for Israel. Now that their are no differences between the Jews and Palestinians, they can all sit down and break bread together. I’m sure Bibi and all the Zionist will be pleased.
Journal axes gene research on Jews
and Palestinians
A keynote research paper showing that Middle Eastern Jews and Palestinians are genetically almost identical has been pulled from a leading journal.
Academics who have already received copies of Human Immunology have been urged to rip out the offending pages and throw them away.
Such a drastic act of self-censorship is unprecedented in research publishing and has created widespread disquiet, generating fears that it may involve the suppression of scientific work that questions Biblical dogma.
‘I have authored several hundred scientific papers, some for Nature and Science, and this has never happened to me before,’ said the article’s lead author, Spanish geneticist Professor Antonio Arnaiz-Villena, of Complutense University in Madrid. ‘I am stunned.’
British geneticist Sir Walter Bodmer added: ‘If the journal didn’t like the paper, they shouldn’t have published it in the first place. Why wait until it has appeared before acting like this?’
The journal’s editor, Nicole Sucio-Foca, of Columbia University, New York, claims the article provoked such a welter of complaints over its extreme political writing that she was forced to repudiate it. The article has been removed from Human Immunology’s website, while letters have been written to libraries and universities throughout the world asking them to ignore or ‘preferably to physically remove the relevant pages’. Arnaiz-Villena has been sacked from the journal’s editorial board.
Dolly Tyan, president of the American Society of Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics, which runs the journal, told subscribers that the society is ‘offended and embarrassed’.
The paper, ‘The Origin of Palestinians and their Genetic Relatedness with other Mediterranean Populations’, involved studying genetic variations in immune system genes among people in the Middle East.
In common with earlier studies, the team found no data to support the idea that Jewish people were genetically distinct from other people in the region. In doing so, the team’s research challenges claims that Jews are a special, chosen people and that Judaism can only be inherited.
Jews and Palestinians in the Middle East share a very similar gene pool and must be considered closely related and not genetically separate, the authors state. Rivalry between the two races is therefore based ‘in cultural and religious, but not in genetic differences’, they conclude.
But the journal, having accepted the paper earlier this year, now claims the article was politically biased and was written using ‘inappropriate’ remarks about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Its editor told the journal Nature last week that she was threatened by mass resignations from members if she did not retract the article.
Arnaiz-Villena says he has not seen a single one of the accusations made against him, despite being promised the opportunity to look at the letters sent to the journal.
He accepts he used terms in the article that laid him open to criticism. There is one reference to Jewish ‘colonists’ living in the Gaza strip, and another that refers to Palestinian people living in ‘concentration’ camps.
‘Perhaps I should have used the words settlers instead of colonists, but really, what is the difference?’ he said.
‘And clearly, I should have said refugee, not concentration, camps, but given that I was referring to settlements outside of Israel – in Syria and Lebanon – that scarcely makes me anti-Jewish. References to the history of the region, the ones that are supposed to be politically offensive, were taken from the Encyclopaedia Britannica, and other text books.’
In the wake of the journal’s actions, and claims of mass protests about the article, several scientists have now written to the society to support Arnaiz-Villena and to protest about their heavy-handedness.
One of them said: ‘If Arnaiz-Villena had found evidence that Jewish people were genetically very special, instead of ordinary, you can be sure no one would have objected to the phrases he used in his article. This is a very sad business.’
Nationalism: Another name for Racism
Before the Dawn of Islam – the most of the known world was divided into several countries, which prided themselves on tribalism, land, language and even color of their skin. Islamic fiath, which commands total loyalty to Allah and His Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) rather than tribalism or nationality – has become a great threat to the world order for the last 1400 years.
Both earlier Abrahamic religions (Judaism and Christianity) were national or tribal religions. Biblical prophets like Moses, David, Solomon, John the Baptist, and Jesus – all proclaimed that they have come to only the ‘Children of Israel’ – a tribal cult based around the descendants of 12 sons of prophet Jacob aka Israel. However, later on these Israelites took the common name “Jews” – either after Judah, the eldest son of prophet Jacob or after King David’s kingdom of Judea & Samara. However, the common Abrahamic roots have not convinced Jews to accept Jesus (as) as the promised Hebrew Messiah. Holy Qur’an, proclaims itsel the continuation and completion of all the earlier Revelations – in order to make Allah’s message Universal. The Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) never claimed to be sent only for the Arabs (more than 75% of world’s 1.7 billion Muslims happen to be non-Arabs).
Holy Qur’an also confirms the Divine messages revealed to prophet Moses (as) and Jesus (as) – and accepts the followers of Moses’ Law (Torah) and Jesus’ Gospel (Ingil) as the “People of Book”. In order to confirm Islamic social bond with the earlier two Abrahamic religions – the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) married two Jewish women belonging to Jewish nobility and one Christian slave girl presented to him by the Christian King of Egypt. However, all this did not stop Jewish elites, who controlled most of Arab trade and usury business, from conspiring against the Prophet (pbuh) and Muslims in the future. These Jewish elites poisoned the Prophet (pbuh), not once but twice…….
http://rehmat1.wordpress.com/2009/08/16/nationalism-another-name-for-racism/
I must be hallucinating! CNN doing straight reporting on Israel. Did space aliens take over the station? The actual truth on the so called US vs Israel crises. I think the end times are near. Or maybe not.
Copy and past this link in your address bar and be amazed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8VfdbCJgpU&feature=player_embedded
Translated into Russian
http://www.ethnopoliticsonline.com/archives/buchanan/buchanan%20ethnonationalism.html
Andy, that was quite an eye-opener. For a General to insinuate himself into a political circumstance and say “…your (Israel’s) policy with reference to Palestine may put American soldiers at risk” is unprecedented.
With what high officials in the American political and military arena are saying openly, can you imagine what they are saying behind closed doors?
Thanks for the You Tube expose, Andy.
WW
The Jews do need a homeland, but they’re stealing and pretty much screwing over the palestinians. I think the UN should do some type of Eminent domain resolution and carve up a part of Argentina/Chile and send all the palestinians there. Either them or the Jews. Then tax every country .04 % of their GDP and use it to build up this new land. Problem solved! Jews are happy, palestianians are happy!
Mr. Buchanan deplores the immigrant invasion and criticizes our commitment to Israel for the same fundamental reason. He doesn’t think either is good for the stars and bars, and we’re with him on that.
But doesn’t it make sense to support the staunchest bastion of our strategic interests in the region? We need to protect our borders. And there are other borders we should not abandon.
It has never been pretty, despite unceasing effort, but we’ve chosen the tribe we most identify with.