| The McLoughlin Post |
Boycott the Beijing Olympics? Or Clean Our Own Backyard
21/03/08; by Diane V. McLoughlin
On the question of whether or not to boycott the Beijing Olympics, the first people I
would ask are the athletes: Do you want to participate while political prisoners are
slaughtered to make money harvesting and selling their vital organs? China does
that. They don't advertise it. But apparently they do it.
What do you think about competing in a country that drags pregnant women off the
streets to forcibly abort their 'illegal' babies when women accidentally conceive over
the quota of one child per family? China apparently does that, too.
Personally, I wouldn't want the U.S. picked to host the Olympics any time soon, either.
Not until Gitmo is closed, Iraq is quit, nukes are not planted in Russia's backyard,
Iran is left in peace, democratically elected leaders or parties are respected -
Venezuela, Hamas being two notable examples out of many - and the propping up of
corrupt, murderous regimes - see Israel, Egypt, Pakistan, Afghanistan - ceases.
The arguments in favor of participating in the Beijing Olympics seem morally
bankrupt: The athletes would 'suffer' [world-class athletes have lots of alternative
venues in which to compete in any given year]; the Chinese authorities wouldn't
'understand' and it would 'antagonize' them [given the above, who gives a rats ass?];
the American economy would suffer because there is a lot of Chinese investment in
the U.S. - an argument which translates to meaning that doing the right thing is just
too darn hard because the only thing left that Americans value is money.
But that's not right. If Americans valued money they wouldn't continue to throw money
at Iraq when it is an illegal and unjustifiable war.
If Americans valued money they would demand that any money thrown at Iraq would
be spent, not on bullets or bombs, but on fixing the electrical plants, the
sewage treatment facilities, the hospitals, the schools - none of which is being done.
How many are aware that in the middle of Baghdad there is a huge lake of untreated
sewage, still, in the Spring of 2008 five years in? How many realize that millions of
Iraqis are dead or injured or sick? Millions.
Many independent observers argue that Iraq would start to get better as soon as the
U.S. got out. Not before.
No, if Americans really valued money they would tell their government 'no!' to
corporate welfare; 'no!' to welfare for the rich in these billions in bail-outs for
investment banks - banks that screwed the working man out of his house on bad
deals - on purpose; banks that then went cap-in-hand for financial bail-outs when the
banks began to learn the hard way that when you break the back of the common man
you break the bank.
Such banks should be allowed to fail fair and square - rather than flushing the
economy down the toilet by printing money - taxpayers' money - to give to investment
banks who chose to do wrong.
Former New York Governor Eliott Spitzer was the only one standing up for the
working guy against the government and the investment banks. They sure fixed him
good, didn't they? Charging him for philandering on the very day the government
announces a quarter of a trillion in bail-out cash for the banks. Spitzer screwed a call
girl which hurt his reputation and his family - while trying to stop the government and
the investment banks from screwing the entire country blind.
Why did Spitzer's wife choose to stand by him? Besides probably being her
husband's friend, maybe she was too stunned at the possible consequences to the
country to think of anything else.
America's hope remains with average Americans. They need to awake from their
slumber. Consider 9-11. Do you really think those planes, those plans, the
tremendous amount of planning, the commitment, do you really think people are
going to bother with any of it because they hate freedom?
Utter nonsense. Was it right? No, it wasn't right to hit the twin towers. That was a
civilian facility. But Americans better wake up. Because the 500,000 Iraqi children
the U.S., as well as British forces took out with biological warfare were civilians, too.
And they were a prime reason why people like Osama bin Laden did what they did.
Americans ought to consider who Hillary has standing with her advising her. People
like former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who stated flat out that in her
opinion the deaths of 500,000 Iraqi children were 'worth it'; she served under former
President Bill Clinton.
Watch the evening news on this, the fifth-year anniversary of the Iraq war. How many
have seen, besides the numbers of American casualties, the numbers of Iraqi
casualties? The occasions are few. When you do the number is low and false. Iraqi
casualties are minimized.
Just Foreign Policy.org provides the estimate that as many as 1,189,173 Iraqis, that
is, one million and almost two hundred thousand Iraqis have died since the invasion
began in 2003. This does not include the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians that
were killed as a result of the decade-long illegal military siege of Iraq that preceded
the illegal Iraq war.
Neo-cons no doubt howl the above figure is far too high. Considering the Iraq war
was based on lies, I would argue that one human being killed based on false
information is one too many.
Almost 4,000 American soldiers have died, and tens of thousands have been
wounded, in the completely avoidable fiasco of Iraq.
If the time has come to pass that in the U.S., telling the truth about American foreign
policy, to openly say what you think about American foreign policy - is to be called
'Un-American' as Barack Obama's preacher Jeremiah Wright is now being called -
then I fear for America.
As in so many other things, if Americans understood what Beijing chooses to do in
its heavy handed attempts at maintaining 'order' at any cost, then I believe most
Americans would prefer to skip the Beijing Olympics and stay home.
If Americans understood what the current administration chooses to do in its heavy
handed attempts at maintaining the American empire at any cost, then I believe most
Americans would prefer to skip war to retain and preserve the republic.
Boycotting the Beijing Olympics is one thing. Cleaning up the mess in our own
backyard is going to be another story altogether.
home
21/03/08; by Diane V. McLoughlin
On the question of whether or not to boycott the Beijing Olympics, the first people I
would ask are the athletes: Do you want to participate while political prisoners are
slaughtered to make money harvesting and selling their vital organs? China does
that. They don't advertise it. But apparently they do it.
What do you think about competing in a country that drags pregnant women off the
streets to forcibly abort their 'illegal' babies when women accidentally conceive over
the quota of one child per family? China apparently does that, too.
Personally, I wouldn't want the U.S. picked to host the Olympics any time soon, either.
Not until Gitmo is closed, Iraq is quit, nukes are not planted in Russia's backyard,
Iran is left in peace, democratically elected leaders or parties are respected -
Venezuela, Hamas being two notable examples out of many - and the propping up of
corrupt, murderous regimes - see Israel, Egypt, Pakistan, Afghanistan - ceases.
The arguments in favor of participating in the Beijing Olympics seem morally
bankrupt: The athletes would 'suffer' [world-class athletes have lots of alternative
venues in which to compete in any given year]; the Chinese authorities wouldn't
'understand' and it would 'antagonize' them [given the above, who gives a rats ass?];
the American economy would suffer because there is a lot of Chinese investment in
the U.S. - an argument which translates to meaning that doing the right thing is just
too darn hard because the only thing left that Americans value is money.
But that's not right. If Americans valued money they wouldn't continue to throw money
at Iraq when it is an illegal and unjustifiable war.
If Americans valued money they would demand that any money thrown at Iraq would
be spent, not on bullets or bombs, but on fixing the electrical plants, the
sewage treatment facilities, the hospitals, the schools - none of which is being done.
How many are aware that in the middle of Baghdad there is a huge lake of untreated
sewage, still, in the Spring of 2008 five years in? How many realize that millions of
Iraqis are dead or injured or sick? Millions.
Many independent observers argue that Iraq would start to get better as soon as the
U.S. got out. Not before.
No, if Americans really valued money they would tell their government 'no!' to
corporate welfare; 'no!' to welfare for the rich in these billions in bail-outs for
investment banks - banks that screwed the working man out of his house on bad
deals - on purpose; banks that then went cap-in-hand for financial bail-outs when the
banks began to learn the hard way that when you break the back of the common man
you break the bank.
Such banks should be allowed to fail fair and square - rather than flushing the
economy down the toilet by printing money - taxpayers' money - to give to investment
banks who chose to do wrong.
Former New York Governor Eliott Spitzer was the only one standing up for the
working guy against the government and the investment banks. They sure fixed him
good, didn't they? Charging him for philandering on the very day the government
announces a quarter of a trillion in bail-out cash for the banks. Spitzer screwed a call
girl which hurt his reputation and his family - while trying to stop the government and
the investment banks from screwing the entire country blind.
Why did Spitzer's wife choose to stand by him? Besides probably being her
husband's friend, maybe she was too stunned at the possible consequences to the
country to think of anything else.
America's hope remains with average Americans. They need to awake from their
slumber. Consider 9-11. Do you really think those planes, those plans, the
tremendous amount of planning, the commitment, do you really think people are
going to bother with any of it because they hate freedom?
Utter nonsense. Was it right? No, it wasn't right to hit the twin towers. That was a
civilian facility. But Americans better wake up. Because the 500,000 Iraqi children
the U.S., as well as British forces took out with biological warfare were civilians, too.
And they were a prime reason why people like Osama bin Laden did what they did.
Americans ought to consider who Hillary has standing with her advising her. People
like former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who stated flat out that in her
opinion the deaths of 500,000 Iraqi children were 'worth it'; she served under former
President Bill Clinton.
Watch the evening news on this, the fifth-year anniversary of the Iraq war. How many
have seen, besides the numbers of American casualties, the numbers of Iraqi
casualties? The occasions are few. When you do the number is low and false. Iraqi
casualties are minimized.
Just Foreign Policy.org provides the estimate that as many as 1,189,173 Iraqis, that
is, one million and almost two hundred thousand Iraqis have died since the invasion
began in 2003. This does not include the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians that
were killed as a result of the decade-long illegal military siege of Iraq that preceded
the illegal Iraq war.
Neo-cons no doubt howl the above figure is far too high. Considering the Iraq war
was based on lies, I would argue that one human being killed based on false
information is one too many.
Almost 4,000 American soldiers have died, and tens of thousands have been
wounded, in the completely avoidable fiasco of Iraq.
If the time has come to pass that in the U.S., telling the truth about American foreign
policy, to openly say what you think about American foreign policy - is to be called
'Un-American' as Barack Obama's preacher Jeremiah Wright is now being called -
then I fear for America.
As in so many other things, if Americans understood what Beijing chooses to do in
its heavy handed attempts at maintaining 'order' at any cost, then I believe most
Americans would prefer to skip the Beijing Olympics and stay home.
If Americans understood what the current administration chooses to do in its heavy
handed attempts at maintaining the American empire at any cost, then I believe most
Americans would prefer to skip war to retain and preserve the republic.
Boycotting the Beijing Olympics is one thing. Cleaning up the mess in our own
backyard is going to be another story altogether.
home
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