Those damn borders... the geographical ones and the ones in our tribal minds. Let's talk about the geographical ones for a moment; it's messy but it must be simpler than the human mind. In fact borders are probably in such chaos as a result of our damn restless minds.

The fact that they are constantly changing can be a good or a bad news. The bad news is that, with a few notable exceptions (German reunification or neighboring Czecho-Slovakian split) it usually goes with a war. The good news is that this war hopefully has something just to it and it will end in peace, in situation more stable than before (e.g. Yu-go-sla-via). Not quite sure anymore if there was a "just war" component in the current Iraq mess, but it may well be best ended with a country split. Of course many hate the idea, like Turkey or Iran who would have to finally accept the existence of a Kurdish culture. But even that can be a good news for them if they know how to go with the flow. One can always dream.. of a world where we would come back to such values as "La liberte des peuples a disposer d'eux memes". What happened to that? If people aren't asked the right questions in such critical moments as in Iraq right now there can only be violence. Don't ask them who to elect, there is barely a political class or any political debate, and people are still new to democracy. Ask them real questions about their future, such as which country do you want to live in? (Iraq, Kurdistan, Shiiteland, Sunniland, Iran, etc.. start a debate!) Which political system? Get an idea what people want; once this is known, every terrorist or foreign power looses all legitimacy if they go against the will of the people. Easier said, I know.. I know..

Will borders in the US disappear or appear. Will the red-state blue-state divide increase? Right now, no good reason to see it happen, everybody would loose, but wait until some real tough issue or crisis divides them. Or it could be just very slow. And if at some point some states accept gay marriage, or ban abortion altogether, and some clearly never will do either, people will move around accordingly... toward a peaceful national split?