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From The Tibet Lobby
Honoring the Dalai Lama with the Congressional Gold medal was yet another saga in the Tibet Lobby’s stranglehold on common sense in our foreign policy. This medal angered one of our best allies, one billion Chinese, for a tiny minority group that has its tentacles wrapped around congress. The authors, Shmearsheimer and Dolt, argue that Tibet’s Foreign Policy has replaced American Foreign Policy. Unless Tibet’s influence is mitigated, America is bound to go down the road to self-destruction.

Publisher’s Weakly:

Starred Review. Expanding on their notorious 2007 article in the Bejing Review of Books, the authors increase the bang of their firecracker claims about the malign influence of the pro-Tibet lobby on the U.S. government. Shmearsheimer and Dolt, political scientists at the University of Chicago and Harvard, respectively, survey a wide coalition of pro-Tibet groups and individuals, including American Tibetan organizations and political donors, Buddhist fundamentalists, ultra-liberal officials in the executive branch, media pundits who smear critics of an independent Tibet as anti-Buddhist and the American-Tibet Public Affairs Committee, which they characterize as having an unchallenged hold on Congress. This lobby, they contend, has pressured the U.S. government into Far East policies that are strategically and morally unjustifiable: lavish financial subsidies for Tibetan strongman the Dalai Lama despite his occupation of Indian territory; needless American confrontations with Tibet’s foes China and Outer Mongolia; uncritical support of Tibet’s 1959 militant uprising, which violated the laws of war; and the Cold war, which almost certainly would not have occurred had [the Tibet lobby] been absent. The authors admit heavy conspiracy mongering, noting that the lobby’s activities constitute quasi-legitimate, if misguided and immoral, interest-group politics, as American as obesity. Considering the authors’ academic credentials and the careful reasoning and meticulous documentation with which they support their claims, the book is bound to rekindle the controversy. (Nov.)
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About the author

Rabbi Yonah

9 Comments

  • Pretty good satire, I have to say (see, I’m not always a contrarian).

    One might argue, however, that the Tibetan lobby has more in common with the Palestinian lobby than the Israel lobby.

    Both Tibetans and Palestinians travel around the world trying to drum up support to “restore” something that never really existed. That’s right, just as there was never a Palestinian-ruled Palestine, neither has there ever been a “free” Tibet (Tibet was ruled by Tibetans, but it was a theocratic, essentially feudal society before the Chinese showed up).

    Both the Palestinians and Tibetans are unquestionably victims with injustices continuing to be perpetrated against them, but no matter how much they’d like to blame all their ills on their respective “oppressors,” there is another side to the story. In fact, both would probably be worse off today if their “oppressors” had never shown up.

    That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t seek justice. But no matter how wise and peaceful a man the Dalai Lama may seem today, we should not believe everything that his political machine has to say.

  • I don’t know if it still has this reputation, but the Taiwan “lobby” is said to be very influential. That may be a better parallel to Israel and the US relationship.

    TheMicah makes some interesting points about the parallels between the Palestinians and Tibetans…except that their leaderships are entirely different, the human rights concerns of their enemies are entirely different, and the two group use somewhat different tactics in attempting to achieve their objectives…suicide bombings and other modes of attack pointed at civilians being the first thing that comes to mind.

  • I agree with themicah. Furthermore, I’d add that despite the disgusting and oppresive Chinese Communism that the Tibetans have to endure, it’s actually raised their quality of life since they lived like serfs under the lama class. As Penn and Teller pointed out in their show Bullsh!t “Holier than Thou” (which has since been pulled from everywhere on the internet due to it’s negative view of mother Teresa), sometimes the lesser of two evils is still evil. And Communism, while inherently evil, is still less evil than serf status.

  • Clearly any claim of a Tibet lobby is deeply anti-sinotic and offensive to right-thinking people.

    When are poeple going to lay off the peaceful Chinese people who have invested large sums of money in providing infrastructure and services to the ungrateful Tibetans. And all out of the goodness of their hearts.

  • “In fact, both would probably be worse off today if their “oppressors” had never shown up.”

    still drinking the kool-aid, huh micah?

  • I think before you post your silly comments, you should take a lesson in history. Comparing Tibetan case with the Palestinian case is not logical because the historical premise is totally different.

    As for lobbying, you should have heard congressman Lantos’ speech. DL was awarded this medal on moral grounds.

    Some of the arguments like china having invested a lot of money in Tibet is crap and illogical. If Micheal subscribes such kind of logic and argument, then he should be perfectly happy if I kill his parents, rape his sisters, destroy his house and then invest a lot of money to build my own house over his previous house’s ruins.