House members urge Bush to skip Olympics

[exopolitician]

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Thoughts?

[dead0man]

I don't think we should even be trading with them until they clean up their act.

[Silent Hunter]

I don't think we should even be trading with them until they clean up their act.

Problem with that, nice idea though it is, is that the US relies on China for a lot of imports and exports.

[dead0man]

I'm not saying it wouldn't hurt, but we'd survive without them.  If it might save millions of lives, it would be worth it to pay a little more for my TV sets and childrens toys.  Most of the things we get from them is crap anyway (or filled with lead).  We can pay people that aren't occupying other nations to make our cheap sh**t.  There are billions of people throughout the world that would love to make our Hot Wheels and Barbie dolls.

[MODU]

"Symbolically," it might be a good gesture on behalf of Tibet to skip the opening ceremonies.  However, in order for it to really be effective, not only would Bush have to skip it, but so would all of our athletes, and that would just be unfair to them since they've worked so hard to reach the games.

I think the best thing to do is design the US uniforms for the opening ceremony to incorporate the colors of Tibet's flag as a sign of solidarity, and then have Bush make an address from China itself about the situation.  Of course, it will really cool ties with China (the closest thing we have to a cold-war competitor at the moment) and might have long-term negative effects, but it would achieve what the members of the House are asking for at the moment.

[phk]

The Olympics shouldn't be politicized.

[bullmoose88]

Because this worked so well with Jimmy Carter...plus...bad idea to insult our lenders?

[2952-0-0]

bad idea to insult our lenders?

Exactly. They could just get a junior bureaucrat to muse off the record about diversifying their portfolio or calling up some US T-Bonds, and then the market will deliver their worst possible punishment.

[Kaine for Senate '18]

We shouldn't boycott the Olympics.  It would serve no purpose, other than to embarass the US.

[Hash]

Even if they offered me a free ticket to the 1936... ahem 2008 Olympic Games, I wouldn't go.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

I can't see why Shrub was planning to attend in the first place.  With the games being in London in 2012, I can understand Brown heading over there, but why Shrub?  To see baseball played for the last time in the Olympics?

[phk]

Ah, the Dems want to trigger a second cold war with China?

[specific_name]

I think everything about China is pretty shameful. But, realistically it has little real impact for the president to boycott or otherwise not participate, it begins to make sense if the U.S. pulls out entirely; which won't happen. And, of course we will never stop trading with them. Well not until we fight a war with them (give it 20 years).

[Beet]

Ah, the Dems want to trigger a second cold war with China?

As Generic notes, it would have little impact. Reintroducing a human rights dimension to US-China relations wouldn't be a bad idea, given that it has rather dropped off in recent years.

[Erc]

The real passive-aggressive thing to do would have our delegation fly the Tibetan flag at the opening ceremonies (or, if that's too much, the Olympic flag---I seem to remember certain countries doing that in the past).

[dead0man]

The more I think about this, the more I bet the PRC is starting to regret getting the Olympics.  They are going to have the world press running all over the country for a month or so this summer, what are they going to do when the monks come out to protest then?

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

Let me state my opinion about France in this - Sarkozy is being a little woosy - if you're going to make a fit and protest the opening ceremony, then boycott the whole dang thing - don't just boycott the ceremony and then be all like "but we're gonna compete" - that's a double standard and hypocricy.

[Akno21]

Let me state my opinion about France in this - Sarkozy is being a little woosy - if you're going to make a fit and protest the opening ceremony, then boycott the whole dang thing - don't just boycott the ceremony and then be all like "but we're gonna compete" - that's a double standard and hypocricy.

No, it's actually a far better decision than a complete boycott. Sarkozy not attending is a purely political gesture at an event that is undeniably a global political showcase (it always has been, it always will be). He makes his statement but allows French athletes to compete in the Games for which they have trained their entire lives. Make all the political moves you want, but don't forbid the athletes from competing. Their window of opportunity is almost always one Olympiad - to take it away from them to make a political gesture is completely unfair. However, if the political gesture can be made without infringing on anyone's ability to compete, then go ahead, however futile it may be.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

Let me state my opinion about France in this - Sarkozy is being a little woosy - if you're going to make a fit and protest the opening ceremony, then boycott the whole dang thing - don't just boycott the ceremony and then be all like "but we're gonna compete" - that's a double standard and hypocricy.

No, it's actually a far better decision than a complete boycott. Sarkozy not attending is a purely political gesture at an event that is undeniably a global political showcase (it always has been, it always will be). He makes his statement but allows French athletes to compete in the Games for which they have trained their entire lives. Make all the political moves you want, but don't forbid the athletes from competing. Their window of opportunity is almost always one Olympiad - to take it away from them to make a political gesture is completely unfair. However, if the political gesture can be made without infringing on anyone's ability to compete, then go ahead, however futile it may be.

Then don't take it away - encourage them not to go.  And besides, they could always compete under the Olympic flag, just like Puerto Rico has done.

[Akno21]

Let me state my opinion about France in this - Sarkozy is being a little woosy - if you're going to make a fit and protest the opening ceremony, then boycott the whole dang thing - don't just boycott the ceremony and then be all like "but we're gonna compete" - that's a double standard and hypocricy.

No, it's actually a far better decision than a complete boycott. Sarkozy not attending is a purely political gesture at an event that is undeniably a global political showcase (it always has been, it always will be). He makes his statement but allows French athletes to compete in the Games for which they have trained their entire lives. Make all the political moves you want, but don't forbid the athletes from competing. Their window of opportunity is almost always one Olympiad - to take it away from them to make a political gesture is completely unfair. However, if the political gesture can be made without infringing on anyone's ability to compete, then go ahead, however futile it may be.

Then don't take it away - encourage them not to go.  And besides, they could always compete under the Olympic flag, just like Puerto Rico has done.

No, that puts the athletes in the tremendously difficult spot of having to choose between the wishes of their government and their own hopes and dreams. However, if political leaders want to make largely symbolic statements with little practical impact, the athletes aren't put in the same unfair situation.

[opebo]

We shouldn't boycott the Olympics.  It would serve no purpose, other than to embarass the US.

No, it wouldn't embarrass the US, it would embarrass China.  You see, this awful culture is obsessed with 'face', particularly the 'big men' within it who lord it over the rest.  It really is an ugly one - even uglier than the empire it is replacing.  But they are singularly easy to embarrass and upset, so it would be funny to do so.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

We shouldn't boycott the Olympics.  It would serve no purpose, other than to embarass the US.

No, it wouldn't embarrass the US, it would embarrass China.  You see, this awful culture is obsessed with 'face', particularly the 'big men' within it who lord it over the rest.  It really is an ugly one - even uglier than the empire it is replacing.  But they are singularly easy to embarrass and upset, so it would be funny to do so.

So do you support a full boycott, or just a boycott of the leaders @ the ceremony?

[© tweed]

I'm not into punishing athletes

[Sensei]

Athletes train their entire lives to be in the Olympic games, and it would be extremely selfish for the USA to boycott the Olympics. A boycott would come with the bonus of a pissed off Chinese government, which isn't beneficial to anyone.

[War on Want]

I think that we shouldn't boycott the Olympics but we should make sure it never gets placed into an Authoritarian country ever again.