I am not quite sure where Pat Buchanan stands in the politicial spectrum but he seems to stand alone. While the rest of the columnists are writing about Sotomayer, Michael Jackson, health care,and the wonder of two engined automobiles (hybrids), Buchanan at least has more of a world view.
quick now the Turkic speaking Ughurs are
rebels in the Underworld of the Ring Trilogy
the ancient people who gave rise to Valdemort in the Harry Potter series
an oppressed group in now Chinese dominated border territory in an oil rich region
Indeed the last choice is why the Chinese 'president' broke off his meeting with the G 8 and returned home
Maintaining empire since the days of Alexander the Great has been a matter of oppressing folks that did not want to be in the empire, that is the topic of Buchanan's column. Here in the US the South did not want ot overthrow Washington DC, it just wanted out, but it was not to be. We have a new Civil WAr, as the prosperous southern US will be called upon to support the failed business models of Michigan and California. How long will that last?
Read the linked column, these are foreign, indeed, names to most US citizens. The books Outliers and Black Swan argue that seemingly unrelated, insignificant events can have great impact, indeed, put people in houses they cannot afford, guarantee their mortgages, and poof, bye bye to Merrill and Lehman. Chide Arthur Andersen, and poof, an 85,000 person cpa firm is gone overnight.
It is important to read things you may not agree with and particularly to read from a foreign perspective. While Buchanan is located here, this column is a perspective first suggested in Nesbitt's Megatrends 2000. He said ethnic people the world over would be going back to their original languages, breaking free of their oppressors. Sure enough look what has happened.
Forsythe's novel The Devil's Alternative describes an assasination in the Ukraine that leads to a near break up of the Soveit Union, it was written in the late 1970s. The Soviet Union did break up just ten years later
WW I began just this way, as he says, Africa will offer no lack of such brushfire wars. Which could be the next Black Swan?
Professor Elam 
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