Olympic Games? No, "Shame Games" says Bernard Levy

While the suppression of Tibetans is at its peak, and Beijing's minions churning out propaganda by the truckloads, some wise counsel comes from philosopher-author Bernard Henry Levy in The New Republic. Will Beijing's "clique" take notice?I don't think so. Will the "blood soaked stadiums" of Beijing host the "Shame Games" nonchalantly? They shouldn't--or that's what I hope.

Full article here.

And most relevant sections reproduced:

It is not too late to use the threat of boycotting the Olympics as a weapon, as a way to demand that, at the very least, they stop the killing and begin following the provisions of the Autonomous Region's constitution to the letter--especially where personal freedoms are concerned.

Beijing won't give in? Boycotts in general don't work? Well, I say to naysayers, we will never know if we don't try. We have nothing to lose if we do try--and the Chinese and Tibetan people have so much to gain!

We shouldn't be mixing sports and politics? We shouldn't deprive the world of the great celebration that is the Olympics? Fine, I say to our sporting friends. But we must not reverse our roles, either. It is the Chinese who are ruining the celebration. They are the ones flouting the Olympian principles. They are the ones who will be hoisting the Olympic flame atop Mount Everest and, along the way, climbing over the bodies of assassinated men of peace and prayer.

And finally, it is because of the butchers of Tiananmen and Tibet that next August, the athletes competing for medals--athletes who have been transfused, juiced up, transformed into near-robots--will be running, wrestling and parading in stadiums stained with blood.

There is still time to salvage it all: sports, honor and lives.

There is still time to take the same risk Barack Obama did, to remind the Chinese of the possibility--merely the possibility--of a boycott, to say at once "yes" to Olympic ideals and "no" to the Games of Shame.

The clock is ticking.