The Washington Post today ran an editorial titled "The Himalayan Mistake". It has suggested the US government to warn the King Gyanendra and his Generals of blocking Nepal's lifeline of support from the outside world. Full text: Editorial The Washington Post Monday, February 14, 2005; Page A16 A Himalayan Mistake A RULER besieged by Maoist guerrillas has forcibly dissolved his civilian government, arrested scores of opponents, declared martial law and suspended personal freedoms. Democratic governments face an unpalatable choice: either swallow this coup or suspend military and economic support in an attempt to reverse it. Either way, the Maoists may get a boost. If this sounds like an anachronistic policy conundrum, it is; nevertheless, the United States faces an urgent dilemma in Nepal, a desperately poor country of 24 million wedged between India and China. A three-sided struggle is underway between a king who would return to absolute monarchy, insurgents inspired by the China of the 1950s and a democratic civil society that suddenly has been driven underground. The risk is of a new failed state in Asia, or a repeat of the brutal totalitarianism that once devastated China and Cambodia. The troubles of Nepal, revered by trekkers as the home of Mount Everest, have been steadily growing since 1996, when the Maoists launched their war against an elected democratic government and the then-constitutional monarch. When the king was murdered in 2001, he was succeeded by his brother, who had opposed the transition to democratic rule a decade earlier. As the Maoist insurgency grew worse, King Gyanendra dissolved the parliament in 2002; for most of the time since then a multiparty appointed government has led the country while conducting on-and-off peace talks with the Maoists. This month the king deployed troops in the capital, Katmandu, placed the civilian political leadership under arrest, and suspended freedom of the press and of assembly. According to Human Rights Watch, more than 150 political leaders and student activists have been detained or confined to their homes, including every prime minister since 1990. The media have been banned from any critical reporting on the military. Many journalists, human rights activists and civilian politicians have been forced into hiding. The king's crackdown was greeted with universal condemnation by the governments that supply Nepal with most of its military and economic aid -- including India, the United States and Britain. But the king has shown no sign of reversing course: He has appointed a new, non-party cabinet and issued statements denouncing the civilian political class as inept and corrupt. He has the Nepalese military on his side, and he appears to believe that he will win over the country and its donors if he can make progress against the Maoists, who control large parts of the countryside and are renowned for their brutality. Such thinking is delusional. More likely, the king's folly will bring about the demise of the monarchy along with democratic government and worsen bloodshed that has already cost more than 10,000 lives. The Bush administration should join with India, Britain and other concerned governments in making the king and his generals an offer they can't refuse: Restore the multiparty system and democratic freedoms, or lose Nepal's lifeline of support from the outside world.