Mark, while I wouldn’t sentimentalize ‘old Tibet’ as much as some, it’s impossible not to be appalled by what the Chinese dictatorship is doing in Tibet, a nation that deserves to be free. It’s also worth adding that the Peking regime’s persecution of religion (in Tibet and elsewhere) has been a long, savage, and bloody disgrace. All that said, the current atrocities in Lhasa have little or nothing to do with the communist regime’s godlessness and almost everything to with its nationalism, imperialism, and authoritarianism. It also follows a long historical precedent. If you doubt that, take a look at how the rulers of the former Chinese empire treated the people of ’outer’ Mongolia in the 19th Century.