HH the Dalai Lama was at the White House to share his thoughts on the Tibetan people and to pause to play in the snow banks. The meeting was perfunctory for POTUS. The lost opportunity of the White House meeting with HH last fall is not easily recovered. The Chinese Foreign Ministry issued a twisted and ambiguous threat in response: "The US grossly violated the norms governing international relations and ... went against the repeated commitments by the US government that it recognises Tibet as part of China." What POTUS appeasement purchased was weakness. Beijing will now retaliate. POTUS will quibble.
I thought no pictures of the two of them together were allowed. And who actually knows what was said? The picture above shows POTUS making a point (or, should I say, 'moving his lips').
Was it to ask the question, "What do we owe Tibet?" or, "What do we owe China?” (besides the barrelful of greenbacks we borrowed)?
With all due respect to Mr. Stevens, what we do owe the rest of the world is to be a sober member of the global community; to respect other nations; to help the weak, the threatened; and, above all, not to flood the world’s financial markets with toxic assets as we did with abandon for so many years.
http://peterkoelliker.blogspot.com/
To "help the weak, the threatened" is both tricky and expensive. Liberals might define such "help" as the donation of chemically treated mosquito nets to Africans...who then promptly turn around and use them as fishing nets, thereby contaminating the rivers there with pesticides and bringing the day of continent-wide ecological collapse that much nearer. Neoconservatives might define such "help" as the invasion and occupation of Mesopotamia...who show their gratitude for their forcible democratization by blowing up American soldiers in ingenious ways while driving out or exterminating the Assyrian Christians. Either way, this world-saving business requires wisdom and money, both of which we demonstrably lack.
Perhaps we had best devote our attention to matters closer to home.
Third sentence should read: Neoconservatives might define such "help" as the invasion and occupation of Mesopotamia...whose inhabitants show their gratitude for their forcible democratization by blowing up American soldiers in ingenious ways while driving out or exterminating the Assyrian Christians.