Gulf Coast Bands Music Forum - View Single Post - Should the U.S. Boycott the Beijing Olympic Games?

wilthrill · 05-02-2008, 08:30 AM

Ok, accepting your premise as stated above....

If the Chinese demanded loyalty oaths(to China) from all the athletes would that be enough of an infringement on their freedoms for you to say "boycott"?

Or how about if the Chinese demanded that all foreign athletes be absolutely silent during their two-week stay. (China could defend it by saying speech leads to "propaganda"/influencing the masses)?

In short is there ANYTHING the Chinese could do to restrict freedom that would not have you saying, "well that's bad but we can't offend those we wish to protest".

You talk about China regulating China and earlier gave an example of Canada enforcing its law. Fine, but we are talking about a country that wants to HOST the Olympic games and how they treat the OLYMPIC ATHLETES. China can enforce it's domestic law but we should DEMAND better treatment for the ATHLETES especially from the HOST country.

You also seem preoccupied with what CHINA would think of our protest. Were that the standard we had applied in the past...

we would have never entered World War 2
we never would have boycotted South Africa
and we would still be best friends with Cuba

As for leverage/deterrence, currently we still have the power (militarily) to deter China from doing things like taking over Taiwan. If it came to it we could still fight a conventional war although it would be bloody and a last resort because they can't match us in a nuclear showdown so we have that threat hanging over their heads.

Twenty years from now we won't even have the last resort option of a conventional war. Our choices will be capitulation or doomsday for all humans on planet earth.

I guess it is a case of you seeing the glass half empty and I seeing it half full. (George Carlin would say the glass is twice as big as needed).

BTW, apparently our "leaders" agree with you because they are running full speed ahead to capitulation. Make no mistake, the Chicoms hate us. They hate freedom and we are the biggest symbol of that. Now they like the fact that we buy their shit but as far as our governing principles THEY are an anathema to the COMMUNIST THUGS who run China. And those THUGS have ambition. China is the oldest nation on planet earth and you can bet they'd like to be running the place.

05-02-2008, 08:30 AM	#25 (permalink)
wilthrill Band Whore Join Date: Dec 2004 Posts: 818 Rep Power: 44	Ok, accepting your premise as stated above.... If the Chinese demanded loyalty oaths(to China) from all the athletes would that be enough of an infringement on their freedoms for you to say "boycott"? Or how about if the Chinese demanded that all foreign athletes be absolutely silent during their two-week stay. (China could defend it by saying speech leads to "propaganda"/influencing the masses)? In short is there ANYTHING the Chinese could do to restrict freedom that would not have you saying, "well that's bad but we can't offend those we wish to protest". You talk about China regulating China and earlier gave an example of Canada enforcing its law. Fine, but we are talking about a country that wants to HOST the Olympic games and how they treat the OLYMPIC ATHLETES. China can enforce it's domestic law but we should DEMAND better treatment for the ATHLETES especially from the HOST country. You also seem preoccupied with what CHINA would think of our protest. Were that the standard we had applied in the past... we would have never entered World War 2 we never would have boycotted South Africa and we would still be best friends with Cuba As for leverage/deterrence, currently we still have the power (militarily) to deter China from doing things like taking over Taiwan. If it came to it we could still fight a conventional war although it would be bloody and a last resort because they can't match us in a nuclear showdown so we have that threat hanging over their heads. Twenty years from now we won't even have the last resort option of a conventional war. Our choices will be capitulation or doomsday for all humans on planet earth. I guess it is a case of you seeing the glass half empty and I seeing it half full. (George Carlin would say the glass is twice as big as needed). BTW, apparently our "leaders" agree with you because they are running full speed ahead to capitulation. Make no mistake, the Chicoms hate us. They hate freedom and we are the biggest symbol of that. Now they like the fact that we buy their shit but as far as our governing principles THEY are an anathema to the COMMUNIST THUGS who run China. And those THUGS have ambition. China is the oldest nation on planet earth and you can bet they'd like to be running the place. Last edited by wilthrill; 05-02-2008 at 08:33 AM.