Tibet 1903 - Iraq 2004 Weapons of Mass Deception

Huh? Weren't they responsible for the borders of Israel/Palestine, and India/Pakistan/Kashmir ... in other words, the two most likely sources of apocalypse in the world?

That was at the decline of British power and influence, you should have seen what the Brits did here in Canada. The Brits didn't decide the borders of Israel/Palestine that was the UN. India/Pakistan had decided on their own that they should be two independent states, and the only issue btwn the two is Kashmir and that had nothing to do with the Brits. The Hindu "King" of Kashmir joined Hindu India regardless of the fact that the majority of the population was Muslim. The British merely couldn’t afford the costs of empire anymore and just wanted to leave both areas.

Thersites

Tibet, and the question of what the Tibetan view of "sovereignty" was. Inner Mongolia and Tataristan are now parts of China- essentially because their natives once ruled China!

This is why I find the angst over Tibetan independence to be not only disingenuous but ignorant. Just look at these:

Inner Mongolia:

23 Apr 1934- Mongols in Inner Mongolia establish autonomous Mongolian
Federation (or League).
22 Dec 1935- Independence declared.

East Turkestan
1928 – 1944- Autonomous from Chinese central government.
12 Dec 1933 - 6 Feb 1934- Islamic Republic of Eastern Turkestan (in rebellion, also known as Uighuristan or Turkish Islamic Republic of
East Turkestan).
16 Jan 1943-Re-incorporation into China declared.
12 Nov 1944 - 16 Jun 1946- East Turkestan Republic (in rebellion)
Jun 1946- Reincorporated into China
1 Oct 1955- Creation of Xinjian-Ughur Autonomous Region.

Yet we complain about a country that never even asserted it’s independence?
 
StarOfEight said:
Really? Jack Straw would disagree.

The Balfour Agreement was instrumental in establishing Israel, and as for Kashmir, the British didn't do anything to exacerbate the problem, but they didn't do anything to solve it.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2481371.stm
Click to expand...

But hey, the French have also never gotten enough blame. The Treaty of Versailles was the single most important cause of World War II, and they've continued to exert a paternalistic, psuedo-imperal influence throughout Africa while at the same decrying the United States' attempt to exert a paternalistic, psuedo-imperial influence throughout the world.
 
The Balfour Agreement was instrumental in establishing Israel, and as for Kashmir, the British didn't do anything to exacerbate the problem, but they didn't do anything to solve it.

Doesn’t he know that the Balfour declaration was actually rescinded by the UKin 1939? The Brits officially pulled her support for Zionism after the 1939 White Paper, and thus defacto giving it to the Arabs. The UK couldn’t do much in Kashmir anyways; it was independent of her control. The king of Kashmir was given the opportunity to choose and he choose India. Yes the UK’s imperialism has caused seriously problems internationally with odd borders, and creating pseudo-states. Mr.Straw is partially correct, but it was the UN who decided Israel/Palestine, and the UN also passed a resolution pertaining to Kashmir that has not been respected (a Kashmiri referendum). Britain deserves blame surely, but not as much as you assert.
 
Undecided - okay, that's what I was wanted to hear.

The king of Kashmir chose India after Pakistan invaded.
 
A apporiately timed article on Tibet/China:

Tibet's future is in the spotlight following the Chinese government's publication of an uncompromising policy paper that rejects the Dalai Lama's vision of greater autonomy for the territory and gives the exiled spiritual leader little or no room to maneuver. For the 68-year-old Tibetan leader, time is running out if he wants to solve the Tibet Question during his lifetime.
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The release of the paper, "Regional Ethnic Autonomy in Tibet", raises a serious question of what options are left for the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan exile community as they struggle to find an acceptable way to return home to what China calls the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR).
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Exiled Tibetans are torn between what many see as the "sell-out" being proposed by the Dalai Lama and their dream of independence for Tibet.
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Beijing is anxious to crush the last challenges to what it sees as its territorial integrity.
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The 30-page paper on Tibet issued by the Office of the State Council of the People's Republic of China calls on the Dalai Lama to "look reality in the face" and accept the existing autonomy that the Tibetan Autonomous Region enjoys.
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since the Dalai Lama fled in the wake of the Lhasa Uprising against Chinese troops in 1959, decades during which "a feudal serfdom under theocracy, one even darker and more backward than medieval Europe" was turned into a "modern socialist people's democracy".
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Claiming Tibet has been part of China for more than 700 years, it says Tibet has "broken away from imperialism" and that the Tibetan people enjoy full political rights of autonomy and full decision-making power in economic and social development. It highlights what it says were the "leaps and bounds" made in moving from a closed, manorial economy to a modern market economy.
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But the paper's real message is its call for the Dalai Lama to reject not only independence - clearly unacceptable for Beijing - but also abandon any special deal on Tibet that the Tibetan leader was proposing along the lines of the "one country, two systems" principle that China says it applies to Hong Kong and Macau, with the ability to run its own internal affairs.
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For many Tibetans, the Dalai Lama's own rejection of independence for Tibet and his adoption of the "Middle Way" of autonomy in the 1980s was a sad climb-down from his earlier position.
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Exiled Tibetans claim Tibet was an independent country until it was forcibly taken over by communist China, citing its de facto independence from 1911 to 1951, when there were no Chinese in the territory.
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Beijing's policy document appears to be part of a growing propaganda offensive against the Dalai Lama, the man they call a "separatist" and a "devil".
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Raidi, who has long played an important role in the local communist government of the Tibetan region, said the paper comprehensively and objectively showcased the ethnic autonomy system in Tibet and "renounced the fallacy released by the separatist clique", referring to the image of Tibet - plagued by human rights abuses and lack of political and religious freedoms - portrayed by the Dalai lama and his exile government.
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Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy...This human rights group makes clear that the paper's description of the last four decades in Tibet as "glorious" is "total whitewash". They call the human rights situation of the Tibetan people grim and "a well-known fact". The report ignores the destruction, torture and killing during the 1966-76 Chinese Cultural Revolution that affected all of China and does not describe what are, in effect, police state conditions in Tibet today, the center says.
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The Tibetan exile government has alleged that the Chinese authorities have carried out "genocide" since they took over Tibet in 1951, claiming a death toll of 1.2 million Tibetans and citing attempts to stifle or eradicate the culture and religion.
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The Tibetan exile government has alleged that the Chinese authorities have carried out "genocide" since they took over Tibet in 1951, claiming a death toll of 1.2 million Tibetans and citing attempts to stifle or eradicate the culture and religion.
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http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/FE29Ad05.html
Click to expand...

And so much more...
 
The king of Kashmir had the job because the British rewarded one of his ancestors by making him king of Kashmir, despite most of thge population not sharing his religious beliefs.
"When Mr Balfour gave the land of israel to the jews, he did not know that anyone already lived there."- Dean Inge
 
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