Posted on 10/24/2001 12:06:29 PM PDT by KantianBurke
STRASBOURG, France, Oct. 24 (UPI) -- Tibet's Nobel Prize winning, exiled spiritual leader on Wednesday criticized the Western response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States.
"You can eliminate people but you cannot eliminate human thought," the Dalai Lama said at a news conference. "The way to defeat terrorism in the long run is through thought, argument and reasoning. Once you commit violence it is unpredictable and it causes side effects."
His comments came after he spoke before the European Parliament.
Tibet's spiritual leader refused to condemn the U.S.-led bombing of Afghanistan, however.
"They (the Americans and the British) know more about these things than I do," he said. He compared the joint action with the two World Wars and said, "This is a sign of civilization."
He said the day after the Sept. 11 "unthinkable" attacks on New York and Washington, he wrote to President George W. Bush.
"On the 12th, I wrote a letter, which expressed my sadness and my sympathy, and I told President Bush that the best way to counter terrorism is the non-violent way," he said.
But the Dalai Lama criticized what he described as the United States' lack of concern for "democratic principles" in its foreign policy.
"As far as domestic policy is concerned, they think democracy, democracy, democracy," he said. "But American foreign policy is not much concerned for democratic principles."
Tibet's spiritual leader has lived in exile in India since 1959 when he fled his homeland. China had invaded Tibet nine years earlier.
Since then, he has campaigned for greater freedom in Tibet; Beijing regards him as a troublemaker, however, and criticized the European Parliament for inviting him to address them Wednesday.
Dialogue remained "the only sensible and intelligent way of resolving differences and clashes of interest," the Dalai Lama said.
The parliament gave the Dalai Lama four standing ovations for his speech in Tibetan on the virtues of non-violence.
While he called for a conference of non-governmental organizations, writers and thinkers together with religious leaders to consider the next stages of the war on terrorism, European Parliament President Nicole Fontaine said the parliament had called for a solution to the Middle East peace process and for "positive non-violent measures to be put in place once the military action in Afghanistan is over."
Her comments came when Britain, a member of the European Union, and the United States were conducting airstrikes on Afghanistan in retaliation for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington that killed some 6,000 people.
So he can go screw himself. God (Have mercy if I blaspheme) will show him one day that there is no other more loving and powerful than Him.
Damn journalists.
Ultimately, he is right in the sense that the long-term battle is a "hearts and minds" issue, but as Germany and Japan have shown, sometimes it is necessary to take the fight out of someone by beating them senseless before they can be made receptive to reason. I fear that this is very much the case here.
The violence of the WTC attacks caused the side effect of the Taliban getting their tails kicked.
It didn't work so well for the Jews, did it?
Oh, you should NEVER share gerbils. You can get a nasty disease sharing gerbils.
Cars? They have cars?
Sure. . . .
What galls me is that one or more of my four sons may some day have to die in a military operation so that individuals like the Dalai Lama continue to have the freedom to speak this drivel.
"Cars? They have cars?"
Not referring to Tibetans (?); just who would initiate the rallying cries for America; if we led exclusively by compassion?
Cannot think of anyone. . .
Going to war, does not necessarily pre-empt compassion; but using it exclusively as a personal weapon against an agressor leads to bumper stickers with appeals for help, like the one so often seen. . ."Free Tibet". . .
. . . personally do not want to go there; America is worth fighting for.
From my understanding of death, the dead person loses the ability to think. Is it easier to kill the SOB's or let them live and hope to talk it out with them?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.