espuelas

The Empire wants to strike back.

In 1950 triumphant Chinese Communist Party cadres invaded the independent Kingdom of Tibet. 

For nine years they ruled the country through the boy King-Monk, the 14th Dalai Lama, until a popular uprising led to a massive, violent crack down and the exile of the King-Monk.

Since his 1959 escape through the Himalayas, the Dalai Lama has been a living, eloquent symbol of a free Tibet and, conversely, a contrast to the continuing imperial traditions of the Chinese state.

Over the ensuing decades, the Dalai Lama's message of peace and conciliation has crashed against the Communist Party's record of brutality and, at times, genocidal tendencies.

One example: Mao's "Great Leap Forward" that resulted in the deaths of some 30 million people across China.

Since Nixon went to China in 1972, and the U.S began its rapprochement with the Communists, the fate of Tibet has been held hostage to the two powers' self-interests and rivalry.

Meetings between U.S. presidents and the Tibetan leader have been fraught with tension and symbolism.

To the Communists, each encounter is an attempt to interfere in the internal affairs of their empire.  For the U.S., the meetings are a symbol of America's enduring values of universal democracy and self-determination for all people on earth.

Now President Barack Obama is planning to meet with the Dalai Lama and, predictably, the Communists are shouting bloody murder.

The BBC reports:

China reacted quickly to the announcement through its Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu.

"We firmly oppose the Dalai Lama visiting the United States and US leaders having contact with him," Mr Ma said.

"We urge the US side to fully understand the high sensitivity of Tibet-related issues, and honour its commitment to recognise Tibet as part of China and to oppose 'Tibet independence'," he added.

"China urges the US... to immediately call off the wrong decision of arranging for President Obama to meet with the Dalai Lama... to avoid any more damage to Sino-US relations."

China, which took over Tibet in 1950, considers the Dalai Lama a separatist and tries to isolate the spiritual leader by asking foreign leaders not to see him.

The Dalai Lama fled Tibet in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule and has since been living in India.

The Hindustan Times reports on the Tibet Government in Exile's response to China's freak-out:

Tibet's government in exile on Tuesday dismissed a strongly worded warning from China against any possible meeting between the Dalai Lama and US President Barack Obama.

"From our perspective, we feel the role of the United States is to facilitate a just and honest dialogue between the Dalai Lama's envoys and the government of China," said the exiled government's spokesman, Thubten Samphel.

"So there is nothing wrong in a meeting between the president and His Holiness," Samphel told AFP.

His remarks followed a warning from China that any decision by Obama to meet Tibet's exiled spiritual leader when he visits the United States later this month would "seriously undermine" Sino-US ties.

For some critics, President Barack Obama's trip to China was a failure. 

But for the Dalai Lama, dependent on the support of the international community to restore autonomy to Tibet, interprets the trip as a success - as an exercise in building the self-esteem of the Communist Chinese that have occupied his country.

Here's the Dalai Lama on Indian TV channel NDTV:

Iran's government announced war game exercises aimed at testing the nation's defenses against a potential attack on its nuclear facilities.

At the same time, the Iranian democratic opposition is seeking support from the West.   

Time reports:

After more than five months of going it alone, Iran's opposition Green Movement is reaching out to the United States for help. Via public and private channels, the Obama Administration has received several appeals in recent weeks to take a stronger stand against human-rights abuses in Iran, avoid military action and impose more aggressive and rapid-fire sanctions against the Revolutionary Guards and its vast business interests.

The opposition's outreach comes as the Administration weighs the next move in its diplomatic effort to resolve the nuclear standoff with Iran. Tehran has effectively rebuffed a confidence-building deal that would ship out the bulk of Iran's enriched-uranium stockpile to be converted into fuel rods for a medical-research reactor — which would also have added about a year to the time frame within which Iran could weaponize nuclear material. The deal would have offered more time for longer-term diplomatic negotiations. As a result, President Obama has begun trying to rally international support for a new round of sanctions.

Here's a FoxNews report on the war games and an interview with neo-conservative John Bolton:

Press TV, an Islamic Republic of Iran news agency, published the following bulletin on their site:

Iran to test new air defense system

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 15:55:47 GMT

Iran is to test a new anti-aircraft defense system during a five-day aerial maneuver, the Iranian defense minister has said.

 

The large-scale maneuver, which was launched on Sunday, is mainly aimed at developing the country's aerial defenses against any potential attack on the country's nuclear plants.

"The Defense Ministry's new anti-aircraft defense system will be tested in the Aseman-e-Velayat 2 maneuver," Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi said on Sunday.
The Aseman-e-Velayat 2 is said to be Iran's biggest military drill to date.

He also said that while Iran would pursue a long-stalled deal with Russia over the delivery of the S-300 surface-to-air missile system, the Iranian Defense Ministry plans to design and build its own air defense system.

Russia and Iran clinched a deal on the sale of S-300 system in December 2007. Unofficial reports claim that the Russian-Iranian contract on the sale of the S-300 missiles to Iran is worth $800 million.

However, Russia has repeatedly delayed the delivery of the sophisticated S-300 missile defense system, a mobile land-based system designed to shoot down aircraft and cruise missiles.

Earlier in November, Vahidi criticized Russia over its repeated delays, saying Moscow had a "contractual obligation" to provide Iran with the system.
Russia is also running behind schedule in the launch of the Bushehr nuclear plant in southeastern Iran.

The plant was originally scheduled to be completed in 1999 but its completion has repeatedly been delayed, and even after ten years, Moscow is still postponing the launch of the facility.

Russia has cited 'technical' issues as the reason for the delays, ruling out that the decision was politically-motivated.
AKM/HGH