US National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley announced in interviews today that it would be "a cop-out" for the US to boycott Beijing's opening ceremonies for this summer's Olympics. He said that the quiet diplomacy the US is currently using is the best medicine for China's recent bad behavior, and that those countries who plan to boycott the ceremony are merely using the opportunity as an easy way to check the Tibet problem off of their to-do lists.
This is absolute cock-a-nannie. The US's "quiet diplomacy" is SO quiet that it has yet to result in any visible progress. In fact, rather than engaging in talks with the Dalai Lama, as the US has previously suggested, China even went so far as to declare him a terrorist-- allied with Islamic extremist groups planning to cause some sort of commotion at this summer's games.
Of course WE should avoid confrontation with China-- they are our second largest trading partner and have one of the fastest growing economies in the world-- but for Hadley to denounce other nation's attempts at putting international pressure on China's horrific human rights policies smacks of arrogance and ill logic. Such foreign policy is reminiscent of a childhood game, wherein Hadley is the sore loser. "If WE can't publicly embarrass China, then no one else is allowed to either," he seems to be saying.
Those countries who aren't in economically dependent relationships with China should, by all means, place public pressure on their violent mistreatment of protesting Tibetans. In the meantime, I'm sending Hadley to the corner for some time out.
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