As I read news reports of the crackdowns in Tibet and the subsequent protests worldwide especially those in London and Paris in the last two days, I have the sickening feeling that I once had as this country was heading toward the Iraq war.
Many people in this community blamed the Iraq war on the Bush-Cheney regime. This is a denial of reality: The Iraq war was an American war. It was supported overwhelmingly by the American people (as seen by public opinions polls at the time and by their elected representatives' support of the Iraq war bill).
How could this happen?
Here are two of the reasons:
(1) The media had succeeded in demonizing Iraq under Saddam Hussein. Few, if any, politicians from either parties dared to defend Iraq and to question the rationales to go to war. Leading Democrats and Republicans were all beating the drum for the war.
(2) The Iraqi exiles, together with the Bush administration and the news media, were able to cook up WMDs in Iraq. It is a truly amazing fact that majority of Americans at the time believed that Saddam Hussein's Iraq was a major threat to the security of this country.
It is a sad fact that it was only after tens of thousands of deaths and countless destructions that the American public finally turned against the war. It should not have been like this: This war was illogical from start and it really does not require hindsights to know that it was wrong.
Now, how does this have anything to do with the crackdowns in Tibet? Let's see:
(1) The Chinese communist government is thoroughly demonized in the western media. Everything the Chinese said is deemed lies without merits.
(2) The Tibetan exiles' claims are accepted without critically challenged.
The Chinese government has claimed that the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan exiles instigated and inflamed the riots in Lhasa that resulted deaths of scores of Chinese citizens. The Dalai Lama and the Tibetan exiles have said that more than one hundred peaceful Tibetans including monks have been killed by the Chinese forces. The Dalai Lama even suggested that some of the rioters in Lhasa might have been planted by the Chinese security forces.
Who is telling the truth? Of course, most would say, without a doubt, HH the Dalai Lama. The communist China has lied about the Tiananmen square massacre. Why should we believe it now?
But wait a minute, is this the reality? The current Chinese leadership is different from the one in 1989. In fact, the current Premier Wen Jiabao was a well-known sympathizer of the students back then. He went to Tiananmen square with then communist party boss Zhao Zhiyang to talk to the students just before the bloody crackdown. (Zhao was purged immediately after that.) The current party boss Hu Jintao has owed much of his success from being able to avoid much bloodshed in Tibet during the last uprising in 1989. He has made creating a "harmonous society" the center piece of his legacy.
So, who have the motivations to inflame and instigate riots in Tibet?
It is reasonable to believe that these riots do China no good before the Olympic.
Propagandas, no matter how politically correct and noble they may seem at the time or where they come from, are prescriptions for disasters.