The Dalai Lama speaks during a news conference in Calgary on Thursday. He was in the city on the final day of a two-day speaking tour. (Jeff McIntosh/Canadian Press)

The Dalai Lama says the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are failures so far, but it's too soon to tell if there will be positive outcomes in the end.

Speaking to reporters in Calgary on Thursday, the Tibetan spiritual leader said some military interventions, such as the Second World War and the Korean War, have had overall positive effects. Other combats, such as the Vietnam War, were outright failures.

It's hard to tell which category the current military interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq will eventually fall into, he said.

"I think too early to say. So far, I think, a failure," he said, adding that civilian casualties are making the situation more complex because they make local people resent foreign troops.

The use of military forces makes hard-liners become even harder, he said.

He said he did know one thing for certain: If the billions of dollars spent on military action by both Canada and the United States had gone to education and health care in Afghanistan, "today the picture may be different."

The Dalai Lama is in Calgary for the first time in 30 years to take part in a conference organized by the University of Calgary. He spoke before a crowd of 15,000 Wednesday, telling them to try to practise compassion in their lives and educate their children to do the same.

Find balance in the oilsands

He also weighed in on the Alberta oilsands on Thursday, saying that all use of natural resources must be balanced by a sincere concern for the environment, especially in light of the dire predictions by scientists about what will happen if global warming continues.

The oilsands are considered the world's largest proven oil deposit outside of the Middle East. But environmentalist argue that too much carbon dioxide is generated when the tar-like bitumen is turned into oil.

One side may advocate stopping oil development altogether, while another may say that oil is necessary enough to outweigh any potential environmental consequences, the Dalai Lama said.

"We have to find some kind of middle way, using nature's resources with maximum care of environment protection," he said. "And in some cases, if there's only two choices, destruction of the environment and losing some money, then I think we have to choose losing money."

The 74-year-old spiritual leader was also asked about the fact that China celebrated 60 years of communist rule Thursday.

The Dalai Lama fled China as a young man in 1959 after a failed uprising against communist rule and he has lived in exile in India ever since. China claims Tibet as part of its territory and accuses the Dalai Lama of touring the world with an agenda of separation for the region. He has said he isn't campaigning for outright Tibetan independence but for meaningful autonomy and democracy.

The spiritual leader said Thursday that, although China has been under communist rule for 60 years, the government has evolved over time. People are freer there than they were in the past and dissent is much more evident. This is in some ways due to technologies, such as the Internet, which let people connect with information outside the country, he said.

These changes make him "very hopeful" for the future of Tibet and China.

"Judging from a wider perspective, things are moving."