We Should Not Boycott the Beijing Olympics

It will only hurt the athletes, no one else. It will not affect the situation in Tibet, or convince the Chinese leadership to stop what they are doing. It will only make the gap between us larger, as the Chinese will not want to lose face on the international scene. Trade and other human rights issues would end up harder to solve in the future, and for what?

It is a selfish ploy that uses athletes that train harder than all others, that have a stage once every 4 years, some only once in their life, maybe twice if they are extremely lucky.

We should not be taking away the dreams and goals of these men and women for political points.

I'm fine with the protesters right now causing havoc on the Olympic flame's route to China, because that is free and open protest, no matter how much brutality the police seem to be showing the protesters who do step up.

What did this kind of approach do in Moscow 1980? Not too much. Some would say it started the dominoes that ended the Cold War, but it wasn't, it was just a lost cycle of athletes used by their government to make a point.

If you want someone to blame, then blame the IOC for awarding the Games to China in the first place, as their human rights abuses have been well known for a long time now. We were fine with it when these Games were awarded, when China's brutality was behind closed doors, but now that it is out in the open, we want to make sure no one thinks we condone this sort of thing, at least not if its captured on film.......

The Olympics are one of the few, if not the only place where nations can actually come together in genuine good spirit and compete, without politics playing a factor.

I'm all for opening a dialogue on China's abuses, because they are very numerous and terrible, but not through the athletes, it's simply not fair.

UPDATE : Stephen Harper has declared we will not boycott the Olympic Games, for the very reason I stated here, that it would do nothing but harm the athletes. Kudos Stephen, which is something I may never say again.