[Jim Noble]

or the breakup of the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia in the early 1990s

All bad, IMO. In fact, the progressivist, Wilsonian triumph that led to the dissolution of the four great empires after 1918 caused a bloodbath which is still going on, 96 years later.

Obviously, the fall of the communist government in Russia was, on the whole, a good thing. However, "national self-determination" is far from a good thing, since it uses the appearance of popular sovereignty to in fact empower progressivist, transnational organizations and individuals who are deeply evil and wish the destruction of our Republic.

[Wallace T.]

A lot of grief in the world could be spared if self-determination was allowed. Ireland is much happier since that country gained independence, as are the constituent nations of the former Yugoslavia. Our government is inconsistent in these matter, favoring self-determination for Croatia and Kosovo in the 1990s and opposing it for the Kurds in the 2000s and the Russian areas of Ukraine in this decade. While Wilsonian idealism for national independence was misguided, the Austro-Hungarian, Russian, and Ottoman Empires were strained because of ethnic tensions and various unhappy minorities. The solution to the breakup of the empires, the creation of patchworks of incompatible nationalities or religious groups, such as Iraq, Yugoslavia, and Czechoslovakia, was ill conceived.

As for Scotland, the Jacobites and the Highlanders (Gaelic and in some cases Catholic) were quite unhappy with the Act of Union. Their rebellions were crushed by the English and the Lowlanders, who are of Anglic origin, or at least Anglicized Celts, and many of the survivors were exiled, some to slavery, others to North America.