Tibet

Lenin's Tomb says: "one has always hoped for a more radical Tibetan liberation movement to emerge" ("Auguring Armageddon," 19 March 2008).

There was little chance of that to begin with. Besides, Washington has long practiced and perfected the art of pocketing dissidents opposing foreign governments: "Tibet Uprising and U.S. Government Grants," Moon of Alabama, 17 March 2008.

What's interesting is that Washington is helping cause big trouble for the Chinese government just at the moment when it needs its cooperation (as well as cooperation of other governments) the most to resolve the credit crisis: it will take massive US government bailouts of failing banks and funds and generous income support for bankrupted home owners and unemployed workers to prevent this crisis from hitting the rest of economy hard; and yet since the USA is a debtor nation, the money for the bailouts has to come from outside, including China. It looks like the geopolitics of US imperialism, having taken on a life of its own, has become decoupled from the economics of the US-led multinational empire.