I disagree for several reasons. First we are in no moral position to tell anyone what to do. Second, I think it likely that once the dust has settled, we will find that, as with Myanmar, this set of disruptions has likely been fomented by our CIA as part of our mindless set of small scale attacks on the Chinese. These acts of aggression plus a boycott of their Olympics in support of our aggression just proves how uncivil we are - it doesn't persuade the Chinese to be civil themselves. We have some small success with the Chinese in Darfur because we are not implicated in the underlying strife.

There will come a time to support Tibetan independence. Not now.

hvd is quite right. Americans are not in a position to give moral guidance to anyone, no matter what they do. The US is far and away the worst human rights violator on the planet now, there's no question about it. One of the worst in history, in fact. You're 5 times more likely to be in prison if you're an American than if you are Chinese. The US has a long history of attacking and killing innocent people, millions of them, and a long history of violating people's human rights. These never-ending criticisms of China are just a way for Americans (and the equally despicable British) to divert attention from their own, far worse, crimes. And it's time people in the world stood up to the US and the UK and tell them to get their own houses in order before they start criticizing others.

And besides, no one in the world any longer pays any attention when the US criticizes other nations. The US has lost all credibility and international respect, and its constant criticism is just seen as hypocrisy.

BASSETERRE, St. Kitts (AP) — International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge poured cold water Saturday on calls for a boycott of the Summer Games in Beijing over China's crackdown in Tibet, saying it would only hurt athletes.

"We believe that the boycott doesn't solve anything," Rogge told reporters on this Caribbean island. "On the contrary, it is penalizing innocent athletes and it is stopping the organization from something that definitely is worthwhile organizing."
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The Olympic Committee should be consistent with how they implement and execute their decisions on who gets the Olympics. If China is okay – should Zimbabwe get it next? It will be consistent with what they call “the Olympic” values. Or maybe we should have a closer look at their values – if we can find it. More on this in my blog at http://angryafrican.wordpress.com/2008/02/09/and-the-olympics-goes-to-zimbabwe/

Maybe the US can start there. Either push the IOC or ask for Zimbabwe to get the next Olympics.

would get its own house in order, sure boycott China.
Until then, don't criticize.
The only thing I can do is buy locally and look at the labels.
Yes, it costs more sometimes. But I buy NA made products.
Do you?

_{repressive governments mix administrative clumsiness & inefficiency with authoritarian tendencies.}

So when Aztlan declares independence in a few years, deep in the heart of the Greater Depression, and La Raza is struggling for independence in the streets of San Diego, Phoenix, Albuquerque, and San Antonio, will you happily let them secede, taking along California, Arizona, New Mexico and most of Texas? Or will you look the other way when they are put down (quite savagely) by the military and shipped off to Halliburton Happy Camps?

Sure, there's a century of difference between Tibet being Chinese and Northern Mexico being an Anglo possession. When does the statue of limitations run out of the right of a people to self-rule? Of course, we're different here in the States, right?

Apocalypse Khan

I knew a female American athlete that made the 1980 US Olympic track team, then never competed internationally. Her athletic career never reached its peak because of the Moscow boycott. She might have medaled, but we'll never know.

I tend to like boycotts. but in the case of an Olympics boycott, it seems to hurt the athletes most.

I've been in those Lhasa temples (twirled every prayer wheel on the inner Jokhang circuit) and I'm very upset about the Chinese crackdown. I have no doubt Chinese soldiers are on some kind of calculated rampage. No one beats the Chinese government for a wider implementation of Control Freak. That snow leopards are extinct is the result of indiscriminate automatic weapons fire from Han guns after occupying Tibet. I've heard Hans refer to Tibetans as monkeys. It's not pretty. This was in 1985 and I realized racism seemed to have no boundaries, and no bottom.

Senator sends stern letter to Olympic boss as world leaders ask China to show restraint

An influential Canadian senator has sent a blunt letter to the president of the International Olympic Committee urging the sports body to use its leverage to convince China to end its bloody crackdown on pro-independence activists in Tibet.

The letter, sent yesterday by Conservative Consiglio Di Nino to Jacques Rogge, asks the IOC to prevent China from passing the Olympic torch through Tibet, scheduled for early next month, and to demand that the Chinese restore rights and freedoms to Tibetans.

"Under the present circumstances," he wrote, "it is difficult to see how bringing the torch through Tibet ... can be seen as anything but an act of domination."

At this stage, no one is even close to calling for a boycott of the Games, set for Beijing in August.

But Mr. Di Nino, chairman of Parliamentary Friends of Tibet, an all-party group of MPs and senators that advocates greater freedoms for Tibetans, said the IOC must speak out against China's behaviour "to demonstrate the sincerity" of the sports body's promise that the Olympics will bring improvements in human rights to China.

"I urge you to publicly call upon China's leadership to restore the fundamental rights and freedoms of Tibetan people," the letter said. "The denial of these basic rights over so many years should no longer be overlooked by those in positions of influence who can make a difference."
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I endorse hvd's comments. Dont you feel shame Jack that when those bloody US and their cronies rape and murder and maime that country of iraq, forcing its millions of children to starve and die, and ransack it with millions of DUs, your conscience and morality goes and hide under the imperialist hide and now to come out in support of the buddhists in tibet? ho, your proposal to teach chinese a lesson,by
boycotting olympics and all those shit..who cares about olympics and
such games mr. jack, when you and your real people are playing the real games along with that bastard of a bush and his war mongering pimps. dont come with your preaching. and dont give us a damn shit about morality and the good doings the US and others doing in the present world. shame on people like you. shame.