[Vision2020] Tibetan Fight for Freedom

[Chasuk]

I hate to defend Bush, but I'm going to have to here.  Tibet isn't a
sovereign nation.  It isn't now, nor has it ever been.  That makes the
matter of Tibetan independence a CHINESE internal affair.

We can't be hypocritical here.  If any one of our 50 states seriously
decided to seek independence, we would suppress it militarily.  This
is probably also true of territories such as Guam or Puerto Rico.  We
did have our own bloody civil war precisely to prevent secession.  The
war would have been bloody even if the confederate states would have
been following Thoreau's civil disobedience.  We fought secession
then, and we would fight it now, regardless of cost or diminished
world opinion.

The balance of global power is shifting.  For a long time it has been
the United States, but in a short while it will be the European Union
and the Pacific Rim, with India only a generation or so behind.  China
is set to become the world's next superpower.  The Chinese government
knows this.  We know it.  The Olympics are important to China.
Understandably, they aren't going to let a bunch of radical
secessionists interfere.

As a superpower, we are facing our sunset years.  In order for this
transition to run smoothly (and, of course, to delay it as long as
possible), we need to maintain good relations with China.  Our decline
is inevitable, but we can make it less painful.  We need China.  Bush
attending the Olympics in China is a tacit acknowledgment of this.

Yes, China is guilty of horrendous Human Rights violations.  But so
are we.  Our protests will continue to fall on deaf ears as we
exercise double standards.

Chas