Sound familiar??
I'm presently reading the book "My Land & My People" by the Dalai Lama. Here's a thing he said about the Chinese invasion of Tibet:
(I quote verbatim - it was written in 1962)
"The pattern of these events will be distressingly familiar in any country which has been the victim of invasion. The invaders had arrived believing (with how much sincerity one cannot tell) that they had come as benefactors. They seemed to be surprised that the invaded people did not want the benefactions in the least. As popular resentment grew against them, they did not try to allay it by withdrawing, or even by making concessions to the people's wishes; they tried to repress it by ever-increasing force, and rather than blame themselves, they searched for scapegoats."
Ostensible Iraqi Liberation
(I quote verbatim - it was written in 1962)
"The pattern of these events will be distressingly familiar in any country which has been the victim of invasion. The invaders had arrived believing (with how much sincerity one cannot tell) that they had come as benefactors. They seemed to be surprised that the invaded people did not want the benefactions in the least. As popular resentment grew against them, they did not try to allay it by withdrawing, or even by making concessions to the people's wishes; they tried to repress it by ever-increasing force, and rather than blame themselves, they searched for scapegoats."
Ostensible Iraqi Liberation
I deeply respect and admire the Dalai Lama. His words reflect his spiritual training, but also speak of universal failings. Sadly, what he wrote in 1962 is being played out by by the Bush administration in Iraq today. It shames me as an American. It shows how superficial the knowledge of a national leader can be and what the consequences are.
ReplyDeleteHas any country in the history of mankind been invaded by alturstic invaders?
ReplyDeleteIn fact, the term "country" could only have been defined with an ongoing violent history.
In the history of my blog comments will I ever spell correctly?
ReplyDeletealtruistic
No, doesn't sound familiar at all.
ReplyDeleteAnd there's no such thing as global warming, either.
;)