Lines for eastern tyrants to ponder
"This hour's the very crisis of your fate; Your good or ill; your infamy or fame, And all the colour of your life depends On this important now."John Dryden Spanish Friar
Who should ponder those lines? Certainly those close to the tyrant of Baghdad should. If they wish to avoid being tried as war criminals, they must act soon otherwise an invasion by the US is inevitable. There is still a chance that a war with massive bombing and horrific street fighting can be avoided, but it's slim. We have reached "this important now."
The people of China might also benefit if Hu Jintao studies Dryden's lines. Hu was selected last week to succeed Jiang Zemin but if anyone thinks that he might be some kind of eastern Gorbachev they should bear in mind that he's the man who, in 1989, imposed martial law on Tibet and who was the first Chinese regional party secretary to send a congratulatory telegram to the central government after the Tiananmen Square massacre.
China's Communist tyrants have developed a policy of granting economic freedoms on a larger and larger scale but there's no guarantee that civil freedoms will follow from this. The recent crackdown on the Internet is salutary. Still, for China and for Hu this is an "important now".
