THE WARMONGER AND THE SHAMELESS OLD FRAUD

While the Dalai Lama seems congenitally incapable of giving a straight answer to a straight question, he certainly knows how to drop a political hint.

He initially lent his support to the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, but then tried to worm his way out of the controversy, suggesting absurdly that if he stressed his pacifist views too candidly to President Bush, he might be arrested.

Here he is again, standing shoulder to shoulder with Bush, as the lame-duck warrior turns up the temperature on Iran.

The tragedy for Tibet is that when the old political huckster dies, his infant successor will be a captive of his epigones as they jockey for power during a long period of regency – a process from which the Tibetan people will be, of course, completely excluded.

Tibet needs democracy, not theocracy with US military bases.