I have a VERY simple cut and dry take on things: ANY religious leader who KILLS or orders others to KILL is either:
(a) representing a totally screwed up religion OR
(b) is himself screwed up and is screwing up a perfectly good religion by his violence.
For the Dalai Lama, I was tending towards (b). I'm sorry. I DO NOT FORGIVE a religious leader, who has had a life time living his religion taking to the dark side. He HAS NO BUSINESS being a religious leader. What is he more likely to teach me? "Killing birds are good if you're angry?"
The origin of Christian warfare was as a response to military Islamic expansion. After that the concept of Christian warfare entered European culture. Students of medieval history know, however, that the Church was a strong restraining factor on warfare. The wars between Catholicism and Protestantism were when the wheels really came off the wagon, and it is clear that such wars were, even though fought on both sides in the name of Christianity, primarily political and clearly nonscriptural.
Because the conditions were different (in southeast asia) Buddhism was not primarily used as a cause for war, but many Buddhists were warriors.
Do we see Christians fighting wars today in the name of Christianity? No. On the other hand, read this: " Today, the future seems more ominous than ever for the 100,000 followers of Tibetan Buddhism who are caught in a half-century of war between local Muslims and Hindus, and between Pakistan and India, for control over the disputed territory. Since the battle of Kargil two years ago, native Buddhists and Tibetan refugees have emerged as India's most effective fighting force along the Line of Control that separates the Indian and Pakistani sectors of Kashmir.
The territorial dispute has since escalated into a full-fledged religious war, with Islamic militants focusing their gun sights on local Buddhists in retaliation for their decisive role in beating back an Islamic attack on Kargil in 1999.
"The Buddhists of Ladakh are the main target of the Kashmiri militants now that the Pandits (Kashmiri Hindus) have been ousted from the Kashmir Valley," said Tsering Samphel, head of the Ladakh Buddhist Association, in the district capital of Leh.
Over the past decade, Islamic separatists routed some 300,000 Pandits out of the Kashmir Valley, the heartland of a once independent kingdom.
Then, in brutal mountain warfare around Kargil, the Kashmiri militants clashed with the Indian Army's Ladakh Scouts, a 4,000-man paramilitary unit of local Buddhists and Tibetan commandos. Just as the fighting erupted at Kargil, the Dalai Lama happened to be visiting the Jivay Tsal, his palatial residence near Choklamsar, the sprawling Tibetan refugee camp outside Leh. According to Tibetan monks and schoolteachers interviewed at the camp, the Tibetan spiritual leader gave his personal blessing to the Buddhist soldiers of the Ladakh Scouts, Indian press accounts also mentioned the Dalai Lama's supportive role.
The Ladakhi and Tibetan troopers were immediately sent to the mountains over the Indus River headwaters. After scaling the icy cliffs, the Ladakh Scouts launched the first successful counterattacks by the Indian side, killing dozens of Muslim militants and pushing the rest back into Pakistan-controlled Baltistan.
"Kargil showed the Buddhists will not flee like the Pandits," said Tsering. "We Buddhists cannot remain as spectators, we will resist."
Hmmm....looks like the religion of peace (Islam) just makes friends whereever it goes.