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.
Even there, there is no "democracy." The UN usually works by consensus in recognition of the fact that each member of the UN is a sovereign nation, and that the other nations of the world can't force anything on another sovereign nation, even by majority vote.
..2309 The strict conditions for legitimate defense by military force require rigorous consideration. The gravity of such a decision makes it subject to rigorous conditions of moral legitimacy. At one and the same time:
-the damage inflicted by the aggressor on the nation or community of nations must be lasting, grave, and certain;
-all other means of putting an end to it must have been shown to be impractical or ineffective;
-there must be serious prospects of success;
-the use of arms must not produce evils and disorders graver than the evil to be eliminated....these are the traditional elements enumerated in what is called the "just war" doctrine.... V's wife.
JAWs: Mistaken assumption- we`re not dealing with reasonable people.
He may be right that that's how to do it in the long-run. We're dealing with a more immediate situation, however.
For that matter, thought, argument, and reasoning may lead to the conclusion that violence is necessary.
This is true. Too bad we live and die in the short run, while waiting for the talk to work.
Yeah, and right before he ran, he lamented that they hadn't the military hardware to defeat the Chinese.
Is the Lama offering to go to Afghanistan and talk himself???
Very true. Force alone cannot win the war on terrorism. Ordinary Arabs and Muslims need to be persuaded that the U.S. is not against them. The U.S. government should be prepared to respond fairly to Arab and Muslim grievances.
And now the Chinese in Tibet are looking better and better...
OK, let me try this one. I'm thinking, thinking, thinking.....
Phew, almost had terrorism defeated. I'll think better enxt time.
What does the Dalai Lama say if, after thought and reasoning, I come to the conclusion that nukin' 'em is the reasonable thing to do?
Why did this guy flee from his country. Shouldn't he have stayed in Tibet so he could continue the dialog face to face with the Chinese?
"Dalai Lama critics US foreign policy"
Critics, not criticizes.
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