EDINBURGH – The Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama has said it was “too early” to determine the impact of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, while saying sometimes armed conflicts bring about positive results.
World War II and the Korean war, although causing massive destruction, “eventually they brought some positive effects,” said the exiled Buddhist leader during a public discussion on ethics in the Scottish capital.
The 70-year-old said that “the Second World War protected western values and civilization.”
While admitting that some young Koreans disagree with him, he said the conflict on the Korean peninsula saved South Korea and brought it economic development and democracy.
As for the US-led invasions in Afghanistan and Iraq, it was “too early to say, only history will say if these wars have got some positive or negative” effects, said the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989.
The Dalai Lama urged the need to promote non-violence.
“We must promote the techniques and methods of dialogue,” he said. “Whenever we face problems, conflict, our response should be to solve it through dialogue.”
And ever since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Communist bloc, the “real serious danger of nuclear holocaust” is gone, he said.
“Overall the world is safer.”
The Dalai Lama travelled to Edinburgh for the fourth World Parliamentarians Convention on Tibet. The spiritual leader is part of the movement to gain Tibetan autonomy from the Chinese communist regime in Beijing.
