Skip the Opening Ceremonies, Mr. Bush
Filed under: Asia
U.S. President George Bush is giving serious consideration to heeding House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's suggestion that he boycott the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games in China. In the same way that even paranoids can have enemies, even evil morons like Pelosi can be right sometimes. To quote Michelle Malkin, sometimes even a blind pig can find a truffle.
Mr. Bush should not attend the opening ceremonies. He should not attend any aspect of the games during the opening (as some have wrongly suggested), but should instead hold a public meeting with Tibetan opposition leaders, by teleconference if necessary, and give them all the encouragement he can to continue their fight.
China is already facing worldwide humiliation as the Olympic torch has been violently assaulted as it attempted to make its traditional circuit of the globe, leading to its being extinguished on at least two occasions. All around the world, people of good will are outraged at the barbaric actions of repression taken by China in Tibet, directly flouting the Olympic spirit. The torch has just arrived in San Francisco; hopefully, we will see that bastion of liberalism stand behind its creed and make an even greater show of outrage at Chinese atrocities, which include sending protesters to "reeducation camps" in classic Communist style.
It simply could not be more clear that China did not deserve the games and should not have received them. Having been awarded, America should have withdrawn. If it must attend, then its leader must make the strongest possible statement of condemnation, and must use the opportunity to confront the beasts that govern China on many other human rights issues as well.
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