On Mar 17, 7:30=A0pm, Quadibloc <jsav...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> On Mar 17, 6:29=A0pm, CharlesLiu <chliu...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>
> > Call Obama and set the record straight on Tibet rioters and "Rodney
> > King" style rock pelting vioence against innocent bystanders.
>
> First, there were peaceful protests.
>
> Then, the Chinese forces ran over the peaceful protestors with tanks.
>
> Then the violence started. Yes, it is true that the Chinese moving
> into Tibet are just poor people going where they can find work, and it
> is sad they are getting hurt. But the rage that led to this is caused
> by the Chinese government.
>
> If they kept their hands off Tibet, the Tibetan people would be free
> to practise their religion. They would not have suffered from the
> Cultural Revolution.
>
> The lucky people in Taiwan escaped the Cultural Revolution, so they
> don't want to be under the government in the mainland that still
> hasn't given up its ways of restricting the press, interfering in the
> private matter of religion, imprisoning people for their political
> statements.
>
> Yes, it is true that China is a big and poor country, and it might be
> hard to make Western-style democracy work there. But that is not an
> excuse for any unnecessary brutality, any unnecessary limits on
> individual freedom - or for any foreign policy actions that conflict
> with the countries that have made democracy work.
>
> Mao's China was one of the great evils of the world, alongside
> Stalin's Russia and Hitler's Germany. Hitler's Germany was crushed and
> defeated. Russia finally abandoned Communism, but the government now
> still engages in dishonesty in how it runs its elections, and pursues
> confrontation with the United States in its foreign policy.
>
> China still maintains dictator****p, despite some partial reforms,
> especially economic ones, and it threatens force against the part of
> China which the Communist rebellion had not spread. Some time back, a
> Chinese air force pilot irresponsibly flew his plane at an American
> plane flying over international waters, causing damage that led to it
> landing in China, and the plane was returned in pieces to the U.S.,
> indicating that Chinese intelligence personnel had examined its
> classified technology.
>
> We wish to live in peace and freedom. The communists ruling China took
> peace and freedom away from the Tibetan people when they assumed
> control over Tibet. That is what matters - the happiness of individual
> human beings. What treaties China and Tibet may have had five hundred
> years ago, compared to the happiness of ordinary people, means
> nothing. If China were a democratic country, and Tibetans were free to
> read newspapers from anywhere in the world, free to practise their
> religion, then it could be claimed that Tibetans who wanted to break
> Tibet away from China were just unreasonable malcontents.
>
> But that is not the case. So the Tibetan people want to put a big wall
> between themselves and the evil monsters in Beijing. It would be nice
> if some peaceful agreement could be negotiated where China could save
> face by Tibet still being in China, but with personal freedom for
> Tibetans (China, though, keeping the mineral wealth of Tibet for its
> industrial and military uses, of course)... but a regime built on lies
> and hate cannot afford to allow anyone under its sway a breath of
> freedom.
>
> (Well, that's not quite true; they have, surprisingly to me, largely
> lived up to their one country, two systems commitment with respect to
> Hong Kong. But letting the people of Tibet tell their stories of long
> decades of repression to the world, they could not face that.)
>
> Hillary Clinton has also made a statement about Tibet, but it seems
> more measured and polite to China than Obama's statement. John McCain,
> in Iraq, has not yet said anything I know of. I do not think I am yet
> prepared to change my mind from John McCain to Obama, because the
> United States is not likely to do much about Tibet, but it can do
> things to protect the people of Iraq from the terrorists who don't
> want them to be happy because the United States set them free from
> Saddam Hussein. John McCain intends to keep up efforts to stop the
> terrorists; hopefully, he will be clear about Tibet as well.
>
> John Savard
Wrong
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