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EXTINGUISHING THE TAINTED TORCH

By Jack A. Smith, editor

We are concerned that the next time the Olympics take place in the United
States those who are now calling for a full or partial boycott of this
summer's games in China =97 or who wax enthusiastic about attempts to
disrupt the running of the Olympic Torch =97 may also feel impelled to
disrupt the American Olympics.

This would look bad for Uncle Sam, so we could not ourselves participate.

But, after all, some people are disturbed because the human rights of the
million or more Iraqi civilians who have died as a result of Washington's
humanitarian intervention haven't simply been violated, they've been
erased. And the campaign for human rights may be thought to have some
connection to the four million Iraqi refugees, the social disruption, the
hunger and the humiliation in a country that may never be put back
together again.

Such alleged violations of human rights just might induce today's Olympic
protestors to attempt to extinguish the torch associated with the future
American games when it is carried through, say, San Francisco.

If further incentive is needed, these human rights fighters must know
about  the 1.5 million Iraqis who died as a result of U.S.-inspired UN
sanctions and frequent Pentagon bombing attacks against Iraq from 1991 to
2003. Still not enough? How about the 3 million citizens of Vietnam whose
human rights died with they did as a result of Washington's war?  For
openers we can point to hundreds of more incidents, of course, from
organizing the overthrow of democracy in Iran in 1953, to backing
overthrow of democracy in Chile in 1973, and the attempted overthrow of
democracy in Venezuela in 2002.

We ourselves happen to oppose disruptions and boycotts of the Olympics an=
d
cling perhaps idealistically to a remnant of the Olympic spirit. But we
can understand that the passionate convictions driving Americans who are
now seeking to disrupt the China Olympics =97 such as House Speaker Nancy
Pelosi or Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, for example =97will
logically impel them to protest at the next American games as well. We
wish them Godspeed  on their continuing efforts to eliminate human rights
violations from the world, but think they should just opt for boycotting
the opening ceremonies of the next U.S. Olympics and call it a day.

Actually, no American Olympic Games are scheduled for quite a while, but
how about the London games in 2012? Great Britain has marched in lockstep
with  the U.S. in both Iraq and Vietnam, not to mention Afghanistan,
Yugoslavia and other humanitarian interventions. Some day they may even
come with us into Darfur in Western Sudan, not far from the oil wells.

Although we would oppose a boycott or disruption of the London games, we
can certainly understand why both the Democratic and Republican parties
would feel compelled to shun the games and why our most prominent
political leaders may have no alternative but to seize and extinguish the
damnable Tainted Torch when it passes through Washington, the undisputed
capital of human rights hypocrisy.