Multiculturalism: How the West Was Lost

It is 1991, and Yugoslavia, born of the ashes of WWI, is starting to break up. It is a violent affair that will be long, painful, bloody, and complex. Numerous wars in the multi-ethnic region will be fought, with Slovenia, Croatia, and Bosnia declaring independence from Serb-dominated Yugoslavia and, in turn, Serb minorities seeking independence from the last two regions. Slovenes, Croats, Bosnians (virtually all Muslim), and Albanians (largely Muslim) will battle Serbs. Croats and Bosnians will unite to battle them — then fight each other as well — then unite again; and Albanians will take up the sword against Macedonians. Muslims will burn churches, and minority populations will be purged from many of these regions. They are the first conflicts since WWII to be formerly deemed genocidal, and these wars will introduce English-speakers to a new term: ethnic cleansing.

None of this was any surprise. Ethnic and cultural ties ultimately trump citizenship status just as family ties do. This is why East and West Germany were reunited two decades ago: Their peoples were both German and shared the same culture, making their separation artificial and, therefore, temporary. Yet artificial unity tends to be no less temporary; it teaches us that, sometimes, the sum of the parts can be greater than the whole. And while Yugoslavia may be the current poster boy for this phenomenon, many other states are similarly diverse and, to varying degrees, struggle with ethnic/sectarian turmoil. Some, such as Iraq and Rwanda, are still making history; others, such as the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia, are history. And then there are yet other nations. These are not places conceived in the ashes of war or the minds of colonial masters....

Well its common sense,this country is Diverse,E Pluribus Unum,Out of many one. The Problem arose when we started emphacizing the Differences in our Cultures and Not the dominant Culture that everyone was supposed to adopt,American Culture. That Never Meant you had to forgo your Ethinic Culture in your family but when you went out in public you were and should be American First, Period.
The 1965 imigration reform destroyed that when quotas for more immigration from European countries,where people of our culture originated,was lowered for More immigration from Latin,African and asian countries was allowed,THAT was the beginning of the end. Justb Google that and read the Statements of our learned Leaders on how that would NOT alter the demographics of the Country and the counter arguments. Very Interesting,as Usual the Freakin Communists in the Democrat party to blame

The article is also wrong.

Linguistically the Serbs, Croats and Bosnian languages are mutually intelligible. They are truly dialects of each other. Their cuisines are similar, their cultures are slightly different, but still very similar. They differ in religion

Albanians are a different ethnicity from those 3 Slavic peoples and from Macedonians (another Slavic people)

Ethnic and cultural ties do NOT "ultimately trump citizenship status" and I can give you a number of examples to the contrary:

In WWI, the Russian army had a number of commanders who were Baltic Germans and they fought against Germany
In WW 2 when the Nazis came to the Polish city of Łódż which had a number of great mercantile families who were German protestants who had come across in the 1800s and looked for support from these, they found none -- the Germanic-origin Poles in Łódż did not give them any support. Ditto to a large extent for the German-origin people in Warsaw
Jews in Germany fought FOR Germany in WWI, ditto for Jews in Russia and then post WWI, Jews in Poland. These were ethnically Jewish but they felt German or Russian or Polish or French etc.
The Italians in the US supported the US overwhelmingly against Fascist Italy.
In parts of India like for instance the city of Mangalore, there have been for centuries 3 different linguistic groups: Kannada-speakers, Konkani-speakers and Tulu-speakers and 2 different ethnicities: Dravidians and Western-Aryanics and they have lived in peace
In WWII, the Germanic peoples of Alsace and Lorraine did not to a large extent support Germany. Neither did the Germanic peoples of Belgium or Luxembourg or the Netherlands.

Ethnic and cultural ties do NOT trump citizenship or how would we explain the 1800s war between the US and England?

The case of West and East Germany tries to simplify the matters by saying "they were both German", when it neglects the fact that people from Eastern Germany can be culturally quite different from those from Swabia or Bavaria -- and their dialects are not very understandable to each other (ok, it's mainly the accents and where one puts the accents on words)

and if one says "both were Germans", then why are the people of northern Switzerland, of Austria, of Liechtenstein, of Luxembourg etc. not clamouring to join Germany?

Then it points out that the Soviet Union is history neglecting the fact that modern day Russia has lots and lots of different ethnicities AND races.

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