You didn’t read the first part of my post. You can be a sovereign nation if you have enough power to make it stick. If you can defend yourself against internal enemies and establish a rule of law within your country, then de facto you are a sovereign nation. International Law has always recognized that.
If Britain had been able to take the US back in 1812, then too bad for America. But they couldn’t do it. Canada has gradually been cutting back on its dominion status, with British permission. It would be interesting to see what happened if England objected. But England doesn’t really have the power to stop it. So they go through the motions of giving permission, since Canada prefers it that way.
It’s another matter for a group of countries to band together to wrest a province from a sovereign state and set it up as “sovereign,” when it can’t defend itself and when it probably can’t establish any decent rule of law either. The current government of Kosovo consists of terrorists, and is busy burning churches and killing gypsies, yet it relies on the West to defend it?
Here’s Bush’s take from Tanzania:
“President George Bush said on a visit to Africa that the United States “will continue to work with our allies to make sure there’s no violence in Kosovo.”
The breakaway province is expected to declare its independence from Serbia on Sunday. The move has outraged Serbia and its ally Russia, which has warned it would set a dangerous precedent for separatist groups worldwide.
“We are heartened by the fact that the Kosovo government has clearly proclaimed its willingness and its desire to support Serbian rights in Kosovo,” Bush said at a press conference in Tanzania.
“We also believe it’s in Serbia’s interest to be aligned with Europe and the Serbian people can know that they have a friend in America.”
Sort of makes me want to vomit.