Many thanks, HjK, reckon it's groups like us who should be bashing the global commonense can.

Though Kantian Perpetual Peace sounds ridiculous, at least we can try for it with agreement and commonsense discussion.

It is so interesting that so long ago Kant wrote much about ways to prevent war, having become so disgusted with Napoleon declaring himself Emperor while still carrying the Enlightenment banner of Liberty Equality and Fraternity.

Kant unlike his German philosophical compatriot Hegel was indeed more a peace man, while Hegel still as a so-called Christian followed more the Paganism that centuries before Constantine had instilled into Christianity with the birth of the Holy Roman Church.

Invading other lands became legit', the true Christian message falling by the wayside. Hegel much later thus saw merit in not only teaching the young Marx, but also his beliefs also gave sanction later for German Christians to follow Hitler, because Hegel often talked about the necessity of war as both a spiritual and political cleanser.

One might wonder which of the two great Germans thinkers we are following right now?

Uni' Schools of Humanities talk about it, so why shouldn't we?

Best Regards - BB. WA.

Excellent analysis filled with accurate critical thinking. Prior to Bush being elected I had read PNAC and was worried. Once he was elected the neo-cons immediately started formulating plans to put PNAC into effect including plans to attack and occupy Iraq to a) obtain the oil and b) develop a military base in the ME in preparation for invasion and occupation of other oil-rich ME countries. Of course 9/11 played into their game plan, delayed invasion of Iraq but allowed the neo-cons to formulate the ‘war on terror’ and thus keep the international community from protesting too much about the PNAC plans for world-wide American Empire.

Consequently with a ultra conservative neo-con PM I knew that Howard would become Bush and the neo-cons puppet and draw us into the ‘coalition of the willing’….in other words, blindly support the US neo-cons plans for American Empire. What’s really upsetting is to see that he has continued to be a puppet, spouting out the same spin that Bush and the neo-cons in the USA are spouting. In the process he has ensured that our international reputation has sunk to low levels, destroyed our credibility in international relations and allowed the Howard government to take away many of our rights and natural justice in the name of protection against ‘terrorists.’

I’ve been pushing this barrow for years so it was refreshing to see this article, Ben. Thankfully there are a few lateral and critical thinkers around. IMO, if Rudd is elected, we have the chance of redeeming our international reputation, restoring our credibility in international relations, becoming involved in the UN and become our own country and doing what is best for us rather than blindly parroting and doing whatever the American neo-cons say we should do

Well I think if now the US is slowly starting to be on its way out as was with the UK then its time for Australia to finally consider its own position in the world without consideration for the interests of large nations. In fact Australia with our size and resources should try and bargain our way into a position of power and presteige ourselves to ensure our independance, economic and strategic interests are protected without other powers to consider in every single foreign policy we make. If Australia were to possibly invest in desalination plants and alternative water technologies, then grow her population then there'd be nothing stopping us from becoming a great power ourselves.

colinsett,

You got me wrong when you criticised my statement that the Pope had got it right.

What he got right is that we are in a religious war. I made no claim that he got it right on population, rather the opposite. The point I have made on population is that it is the issue that unites George Bush, the Pope, the third world and the muslim world, and that any mention of it usually results in allegations of racism or genocide. The fact that such powerful interest groups have the wrong idea on population control is what makes me despair about the future of the world. This is why I believe that, because of human inaction, the population problem will be solved by the four horsemen of the apocalypse, and that won't be a lot of fun for anyone.

As far as your comment on overconsumption is concerned, I would agree with you except that the only way we know how to run an economy is with continuous growth. The last sustained period without growth was called the Great Depression. Without growth in consumption improvements in productivity feed directly into umemployment. If you have a better formula, I would love to hear it.

folks, as a little warm-up exercise before reforming the u n, could we reform oz first? after we have achieved democracy here, we can use our new-won citizen initiative to press for democracy elsewhere.

of course, talking about the real possibility of reforming our own country is more threatening than vaporing on about the world stage, as it requires actual responsibility. ozzies don't do responsibility.

bushbred, thanks for giving me a hearing.

DEMOS, I understand your sentiment, but the article we are responding to is asking us to re-think our foreign policy.

The need to improve our democratic institutions does not absolve us of the responsibility to use whatever tools we have at our disposal to create a multilateral international system that protects Australian interests. Our democratic institutions may not be perfect, but we can still use them, along with American support for "democracy" and "freedom", to entrench a multilateral system that will protect our interests whilst being difficult to overturn.