Remember The Treaty of Westphalia – Ken’s Thought of the Week

Quote of the Week:

Between 1618 and 1648, Europe suffered its longest and most destructive series of internal wars, known as “The 30 Year War”. It began as a religious war, when the Catholic Ferdinand II, the Holy Roman Emperor from the House of Habsburg, attempted to impose Roman Catholicism on its Protestant subjects in Bohemia and Austria. The Protestants revolted, and the war expanded to neighboring nations. It widened to include additional interests and large mercenary armies who killed millions of people and plundered and pillaged everything in their way. Most of the fighting took place in Central Europe. The hardest hit was the territory of modern-day Germany, which was largely impoverished and destroyed, as a result.

By 1644, the war caused enough devastation to pressure the adversaries to begin peace negotiations, which went on until 1648. Between May and October, several peace agreements were signed by hundreds of diplomats who negotiated on behalf of the cities and the nations involved, ending the Thirty Years’ War. This group of agreements is known collectively as The Peace of Westphalia (the region where the treaties were signed).While the peace treaty did not end all hostilities in Europe, it gave Switzerland independence from Austria, and the Netherlands gained independence from Spain. But most importantly, two major principles were agreed upon: sovereign borders and religious tolerance.

The Peace of Westphalia established important political precedents for state sovereignty, inter-state diplomacy, and balance of power in Europe.

Today, 374 years later, we seem to have learned nothing from this 30-year debacle. Did we simply forget what we learned? Have we learned anything more from the American Revolution, the French Revolution, World War I, or World War II? Apparently not. For we now find ourselves on the verge of World War III, where everyone will once again be fighting everyone else, because we no longer seem to respect the sovereignty of countries. Let’s look at a few sad examples:

1) In February 2022, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin proceeded, again, to further invade the sovereign country of Ukraine, claiming it is part of Russia and strategically important to protect Mother Russia from future (imagined) invasions. in 2014, Putin invaded and annexed the Crimean Peninsula to Mother Russia, with no meaningful repercussions.

2) In 2019, China felt compelled and entitled to illegally take over independent Hong Kong and constantly claims that it must reunite with Taiwan, a sovereign nation which was never a part of China.

3) The terrorist government of Iran continuously claims the U.S. and Israel have no right to exist and repeatedly vows to destroy them.

4) Turkey (and Qatar) support the Muslim Brotherhood, which does not accept the existence of any Judeo-Christian country. The Muslim Brotherhood believes that Islam is the successor religion to Judaism and Christianity, which are therefore “obsolete.”

5) The corrupt, dictatorship-controlled United Nations constantly condemns and undermines Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state.

6) The unelected World Economic Forum wants to impose carbon controls on all sovereign countries, including the U.S.

7) In Nigeria, Islamist terrorist groups residing in the north, are fighting and terrorizing the Christians who populate the southern half of the country

8) North Korea does not accept South Korea‘s right to exist.

9) Within the U.S., the federal government does not recognize the Constitutional protections regarding State’s rights.10) The Biden administration has abdicated its duty to protect the sovereignty of the U.S. over its territory. It does not protect U.S. citizens from, and is in fact enabling the invasion by more than two million (and growing) illegal migrants annually from 160 countries. Moreover, it does nothing to stop dangerous people, drugs, and communicative diseases from entering the country. On the contrary, it invites and supports the invaders, and forces American citizens to pay billions of dollars to cover the invaders’ expenses.

The fast-encroaching World War III is a repeat of all historical wars, because we forgot all the lessons of the previous wars. If our children survive, and have not already been fully indoctrinated, they will never forgive us for standing by.