Congratulations, Kosovo. As the latest product of a U.S. foreign policy that seems bent on destruction as never before, you’ve been welcomed into the family of nations – well, almost. As thousands of Serbs protested outside Belgrade’s orthodox cathedral, and a few hundred more stormed the U.S. embassy across town – lighting it on fire in the process – our government helped to fuel the flames of one of the most flammable Balkan situations since 1914.

To say our own government acted somewhat improperly in its recognition of the fledgling Kosovar state is an understatement. Indeed, President Bush seemed almost giddy in his press conference the next morning.

Firstly, there is the inherent irony of one nation – the United States, which by pretty much all definitions utterly ravaged, suppressed and destroyed a secessionist movement in the mid-19th century – advocating and recognizing the secession of a roughly equivalent percentage of another country. How would modern America feel about Britain, had Her Majesty’s government recognized and legitimized the Confederacy in 1861? Now you know how Serbia feels right about now.

Then there is the utter stupidity of forming small nations that can in no way support themselves. An independent Kosovo will, in time, become simply another repository for our tax dollars – sliding its way into the federal budget under the “economic aid” heading. Kosovo is a landlocked, economically crippled, infrastructure-deprived land. More than 60 percent of its approximately 2 million people are unemployed, and they live on an average wage equivalent to less than $250 per month. Kosovan authorities are also on less-than-friendly footing with at least one of their three non-Serbian neighbors – Macedonia, with whom they have an ongoing border dispute. Economic viability under such conditions, without the United States footing the bill – either through the United Nations or otherwise – is at best doubtful. Indeed, the United States plowed $77 million into Kosovo last year and is on track to deliver in excess of $335 million this year, whereas economic aid to Serbia has been suspended as part of the hangover following the deposed Milosevic regime.

What makes the Kosovar Albanians so special in comparison to any other oppressed minority, anyway? If we support their independence, do we then also support the aims of the Basque groups in Spain, the Chechens in southern Russia, the Kurds of northern Iraq and southern Turkey or the independence of Scotland? How about the Breton peoples of northwestern France? What, then, of Utah, where thousands of Mormon settlers were driven in the mid-19th century in search of religious freedoms not available to them elsewhere? As a geographically concentrated minority group – in this case, a religion – are they allowed to simply leave the United States whenever they’d like? The native population of Hawaii? Puerto Rico? Chinatown in San Francisco? What is to halt the Cuban population of Miami from hoisting a flag and declaring themselves independent of the United States? This is, effectively, what has occurred – and what our government has aided and abetted – in Kosovo.

To advocate independence for Kosovo sets a poor example around the world. What becomes of a world where all parties who disagree and all peoples who are different must be divided by a border? The end result, beyond a patchwork of tiny unsustainable states, is anarchy. We all differ from one another – no two people are alike in background, attitude, style or experience. The lesson to be learned from the long, painful history of the Balkans and other areas with similar issues – Palestine, Kashmir and Darfur, for instance – is one of moderation and respect. It is by far easier to simply pick up our ball and go home when disagreements arise.

Character, respect and the collective human experience, however, are forged in our attempts to bridge the gaps between us – setting our differences aside in the interests of peace and advancing ourselves. To simply draw a line and separate ourselves from those with whom we disagree politically, philosophically, religiously or historically is to ignore one basic fact: In the end, we are all a minority – a minority of one.

– Ryan Frederick is a senior in management from Orient.