A Fractured United States Might Not Be So Bad
This post is in response to a Wall Street Journal article calling for the balkanization of Iran. We should look at home first before calling for balkanization abroad.
The Wall Street Journal released an opinion piece on January 16, 2026 calling for the balkanization of Iran. The main premise is that the fractionalization of Iran would help pursue American geopolitical-economic interest, safeguard Israel’s hegemony in west Asia and frustrate the aspiration of the other great powers. The author states that the borders of Iran are “fictitious”, with many ethnic minorities that would be better off under alternative political arrangements.
Opinion columns in major U.S. outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and New York Times are published with intention. These platforms are heavily read by the country’s political and economic elite. Their opinion sections function as a public-facing expression of elite assumptions, priorities, and anxieties. For those involved in progressive or nationalist movements, it is essential to closely examine these arguments—not to accept them, but to understand them and strategically deploy their contradictions against the interests of the American ruling class.
Dangers of America and Americanism
The point of my response is to not refute the basic claims made in the opinion piece on Iran but to offer an alternative framework of thinking regarding international peace and security. The United States of America is the “greatest purveyor of violence in the world” to quote Martin Luther King Jr. This is a fact. Ever since he gave the speech “Beyond Vietnam” to a New York City Church in 1967, the violence that the American empire exports abroad has only increased. The Trump regime and his collection of neo-confederates have only made the violence of the American Empire much more of a spectacle than it traditionally has been. The support for the genocidal war in Gaza, bombing of Iran and invasion of Venezuela has forced all formerly sleepy observers to bear witness.
Regarding the Islamic Republic of Iran, whatever you may think of the government, it clearly has not engaged in the level of violence that the American empire has. Even in west Asia the Islamic Republic pales in comparison to the levels of death and destruction the American empire has delivered just in the last 20 years. It was not Iran that invaded Iraq twice, killing millions and dooming an entire civilization. Iran has not overthrown a single government in the region nor engaged in wars of aggression. The Islamic Republic of Iran is actively combating the genocide in Palestine and the Zionist regime (Israel) that occupies Palestine. Iran’s support for the Palestinian cause and its fight against American dominance in West Asia is the sole reason for America’s ruling elite wanting to balkanize the country.
A Balkanized United States
Destruction, destabilization and destitution has been the major export of the United States empire since its foundation and have been its sole exports since the beginning of the unipolar moment in the late 80’s and early 90’s. The world is recognizing the reality that the United States is not a normal country, has never really been a normal country and cannot become normal under its current configuration. America’s two original sins, the large scale enslavement of millions of Africans and the 400 year continent wide genocide of the indigenous nations has lead directly to the monstrosity that is American foreign policy. The mindset of the colonist and the slaveowners can bee seen in the American’s support or for the genocide in Palestine, the invasion of Venezuela and the pursuit of hegemony across the planet by any means. It is an ideology that cannot be erased outside of a Revolution and even still that may not be enough.
The only permanent solution to the current international crisis is the complete destruction of the American empire, its black and indigenous nations liberated and its territory divided into as many small states as possible. Given the size of the country, it’s clear that anything short of Balkanization will allow the U.S to continue threatening global peace and security. America is not just a rogue state, but a rogue nation that needs to be dealt with before it plunges human civilization into a level of barbarism not seen in human history.
America’s Subjected Nations
What are America’s subject nations? There are many. Like what was stated of Russia by Vladimir Lenin, the United States of America is a prison house of nations. The indigenous peoples of Hawaii have been under American colonialism since the destruction of the Kingdom of Hawaii in 1893 by white businessmen; there are 3 million indigenous people forced to live in small concentration camps (called reservations) trying to maintain their national identity; there are 45 million New Africans (African Americans) who live under colonial domination by far-right white nationalist within the South and a traitorous black political elite within the Democratic party in the North. Even within the Euro-American population, there are sharpening contradictions between regional identities, heritages and religions. Examples include the Cajun populations in South Louisiana, the Mormons around Utah and few others of lesser importance.
Conclusion
If any country is to be balkanized, it should be the United States. Balkanization of the American empire would bring longer-term peace and security to the globe as the major source of international instability would be neutralized. Without the United States as a disruptor, nations of the global south can undertake sovereign economic, social and political development and international trade can continue without the threat of U.S piracy. The United Nations, theoretically a great institution, had had its development curtailed and corrupted by American imperial machinations. Good global governance, sovereign development and international stability would finally have a chance with the fractionalization of the United States of America.