Comments by "David Ford" (@davidford3115) on "Bosnia and Herzegovina: 1 Country, 3 Presidents? - VisualPolitik EN" video.

Indeed. Why does it HAVE to be one country? Why can it not partition down into smaller independent states? Why does San Marino, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, and Andorra get to be independent nations, but the small areas of Bosnia do not?
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I suspect that trying to make them remain one unified country is also a part of the dysfunction. If the Serbia majority areas want to be annexed by Serbia, let them. If the Croat dominated areas want to be a part of Croatia, let them. And let the Bosnian Muslim areas be their own independent states if they so choose. This idea that it has to be one nation is based on 18th century chauvinism.
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If the Serbians in Bosnia want to be annexed by Serbia, let them. If the Croats in Bosnia want to be annexed by Croatia, let them. And allow the Bosnian Muslims to live in their own independent nation-states just like San Marino, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, and Andorra.
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I tend to agree. This idea that they HAVE to be under one flag and one government is an 18th century chauvinistic conceit. Let them fracture into localized governments. If San Marino, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, and Andorra can all be independent nations, why can the various localities of Bosnia do the same?
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@emps8992 That is a strawman argument and has nothing to do with whether Bosnia's localities can be independent states. How about you actually debate merits instead of gutter sniping?
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@maximusgrandus How would such a small state be a problem? If San Marino, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, and Andorra can all be independent nations, there is no excuse for not letting the local regions of Bosnia do the same.
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Wow. As bizarre and off the wall as that is, I just might actually work!
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@Mohankeneh How? Yugoslavia broke up NOT because of the US but as a direct result of Josif Bros Tito's death. He failed to groom an effective heir who could keep the disparate factions operating in harmony.
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@mikevarga6742 Unrest under Maduro in Venezuela is a direct result of Hugo Chavez' death. Yes, it can take as much as 9 years for a country to come apart. Things don't just happen overnight. And in Yugoslavia's case, it took some time for Tito's successors to screw things up.
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@Mohankeneh All wishful thinking. Yugoslavia was NEVER a superpower. India, United Kingdom, and Maoist China had a better claim than Yugoslavia ever did. So just on that point everything else you claim can be discounted.
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@1233-d3h The idea that you keep Serbians in Bosnia under a pro-NATO government is a pathetic justification. Again, it is predicted on 18th century chauvinism rather than reality on the ground. There is very little threat to European stability if Republika Srpska is annexed by the Republic of Serbia. If anything, it may actually bring MORE stability.
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@1233-d3h That would be the French you are talking about. Ever heard of the Vichy government?
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I think a better option is to simply let the country further divide into smaller countries rather than force everyone to be under one flag and government. San Marino, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, and Andorra all get to be independent countries, why can't the same thing occur in Bosnia?
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Makes one wonder how Josif Bros Tito was able to unite the disparate factions as Yugoslavs, overcoming the historic differences and animosities. Yes, Visual Politik has a video on Tito, but while the platitudes of Tito sound nice, there is something more to his mojo. And I suspect it has to do with him being something of a dictatorial strongman because emphasizing unity on share human experience (shared Yugoslav identity in Tito's case) is not a very strong glue, unfortunately.
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@scooter21ba And now you are making the argument of Putin about Ukraine and Kazakhstan and applying it to Bosnia and the former Yugoslav constituent nations. It is also the same argument today as for why Poland and the Baltic States should not be independent nations but part of the Russian Empire. Most would reject your argument as denying the right of autonomy and self-determination.
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@scooter21ba You are morally equivocating without actually addressing the question nor debating the merits. You are only reinforcing my point, not refuting it.
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@scooter21ba Nice bloviation and appeal to the extreme. I never said to dissolve Andorra, Liechtenstein, or the rest. I was simply pointing out the hypocrisy that you can rationalize those nations as being Sovreign yet Bosnia becoming several smaller nations isn't acceptable. And as far as the natives, might I remind you that many of them have their own local governments on reservations that while nominally subject to the US Constitution are effectively their own autonomous countries? You are making a red herring argument (logical fallacy) bordering on a non sequitur.
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Putin is trying to stir up trouble in the region. Just like the Tsars did in the lead-up to World War 1.
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@scooter21ba That is not an argument, it is ad hominin personal attack. And for the record, my ancestors are Lorraine- German, thank you very much. My ancestors fled Europe for the very reasons now threatening to tear apart the Balkans yet again. Namely feudal elites who think they can dictate to the locals which flag they have to prostrate themself to. Incidentally, some of the Slavic girls in my middle and high school years were quite the lookers. Sadly, they would not give me the time of day on account of my strongly Anglo-German looks.
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@tarik6990 That is a strawman argument (logical fallacy). You would punish the people who did NOT participate in the crimes against humanity for the actions of those who did? That itself is fascistic. You don't oppose fascism with more fascism.
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@tarik6990 No, it is not common sense to become the very monster you are fighting. For one, the fascists don't actually care about the country being partitioned, they just want to be the ones with the power. So, that fear of giving them what they want is not occurring and will not occur because you don't even know what they really want and that is power and control. "As long as they live there and actively support their fascistic entity while threatening non-Serbs with new war crimes and massacres, to me they are just as guilty. " And that is guilty by association, a hallmark trait of fascism. For someone who is worried about fascist, you are certainly acting like one yourself. Perhaps YOU are the actual fascist. What is madness is your myopic and obsessed desire to control people you disagree with. You don't even see that you are advocating for the policies of the very ideology you claim to fear.
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@1233-d3h It also says that foreign outsiders can dictate to them their lot and denies them agency and self-determination. Yes, crimes against humanity are bad, but if you use that as justification for forcing them into a union, they don't want to be a part of, you are no better than the butchers. America's biggest mistake in Iraq was not letting the Sunnis and Shias get the fight out of themselves. Probably in no small part due to the fighting in Bosnia. Yet the same interventionism was not done in Darfur. Nor was it engaged in Cambodia during Pol Pot's reign. The cynic in me thinks that NATO members care more about Slavs than they do sub-Saharan Africans or Southeast Asians.
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@1233-d3h Your point being? So, the Serbs are aligned with Putin, so what? Keeping them under a government and system they don't particularly support nor care for is just as tyrannical and despotic.
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@williamthebonquerer9181 I have a sneaking suspicion that very few of the villages and communities are ethnically integrated, especially AFTER the genocides of the 90s. I am rather confident in saying that you CAN partition out individual hamlets, so they are NOT in the same counties, which are nothing more than lines arbitrarily drawn on a map anyhow. All I am hearing is excuses from people who foolishly subscribe to 19th century collectivist arguments about national boundaries.
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@williamthebonquerer9181 Apparently you have not heard of Baarle-Nassau and Baarle-Hertog in Belgum. Nor the crazy border of Cooch Behar district between India and Bangladesh. You just lack creativity and imagination, as well as knowledge of examples that have come before of how it is possible.
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@yolson2376 Possibly. What I know is that the "experts" often times have no clue how things will play out because they can't properly account for the unpredictability of human behavior. "Nothing is more unreliable than the populace, nothing more obscure than human intentions, nothing more deceptive than the whole electoral system." — Marcus Tullius Cicero
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I tend to agree. There is no reason why they all have to be under one flag and in one country. If San Marino, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, and Andorra can all be independent nations, there is no reason why the same can't occur in Bosnia.
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@anartapoashan5714 You would be surprised to hear that most Socialist-Marxists call themselves humanists. As did a certain German National Worker's party. And before someone brings up the strawman, the US Constitution is NOT a Humanist document, it is based on Natural Law. Humanism is about MAN's law, not Natural Law.
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