Obama and the Lama

I've never really understood all this fuss over the Dalai Lama, unless you're a Tibetan monk or Richard Gere. The man is a non-entity, and plays absolutely no significant role in anything. If heads of state want to meet him and treat him as royalty, so be it. Now, Obama wants to meet with him, I suppose to spite China for its treatment of Tibet and other human rights violations. And China gets sore at the U.S. and threatens with all kinds of retaliations.

This is very silly on both parts. Let the man keep doing what he has been doing for the past 50 years: touring the world speaking a bunch of platitudes and grinning incessantly. Some say collecting a check from the CIA or the NSA, having made political persecution a career. It really doesn't matter that much. At bottom, the U.S. cares very little, if anything, for Tibet. It's just a photo opportunity for Obama and the Lama.

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