NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY

I see that Keith Burgess-Jackson has a post on the notion of national sovereignty and says most of what needs to be said about it. The people who have been raising the issue in recent years have been Leftists -- using the doctrine that national sovereignty must be respected regardless of "internal" matters in a pathetic attempt to defend Saddam Hussein and criticize GWB. There is a doctrine of that sort in international law but its origin is amusing:

It originated in 1648 after Europe became exhausted by Catholic vs. Protestant wars as the "Peace of Westphalia" and was a (partially successful) way of preventing more wars by accepting the status quo as final -- i.e. accepting as final those boundaries between kingdoms that existed at that time regardless of the religion of the ruler (which it was accepted his subjects were obliged to follow). Napoleon however eventually came along and thoroughly upset the status quo so the whole thing had to be done all over again by the Congress of Vienna in 1815. And the Congress of Vienna was chaired and run by the representative of the Austrian Kaiser, the highly-reactionary Prince Metternich (who was himself a Westphalian, curiously enough). So the Congress of Vienna must be one of history's best examples of a concerted and successful attempt to defend and preserve a major and long-lasting status quo. And the doctrine underlying THOSE arrangements is what Leftists now proclaim as sacred! It shows how easily their "principles" can go into reverse-gear (as they also did over eugenics).

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FROM BROOKES NEWS

Theresa Heinz Kerry: You pay taxes, I don't Theresa Heinz Kerry likes taxes so much she thinks the little people should pay more
Joe Wilson tried to set up President Bush Joe Wilson used his Niger-uranium assignment to try and damage the President Bush
Taiwan - why China will not invade Some American commentators have been warning of a Chinese attack on Taiwan. Why they are wrong
The ALP, intelligence and hypocrisy The ALP cannot be trusted with the defence of Australia and the management of our relationships with our allies

Details here

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