Some of these atheletes late teens early twenties have trained for this their entire lives....this is their time to shine....to boycott means waiting 8 years  and they will be out of their prime.......children should not suffer the crimes of the parent......



What crime against humanity had Germany committed at this time?

Greivances against China are well documented.

-no Jews were being sent to any of the concentration camps unless they were political dissidents, trade union organizers, asocials, vagrants, criminals, or race mixers and homosexuals who had broken the law.

-Nazi Germany was the envy of the Western world. From the depths of the Great Depression in 1932, Hitler had achieved an "economic miracle" in Germany in less than three years. As yet, there was no sign of Nazi aggression, nor any attempt at world domination by Germany.

-Gertrude Stein, the famous Jewish writer who was a mentor to Ernest Hemingway, even suggested in 1937 that Hitler should be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

-The ordinary Germans were satisfied with their lives and had no reason to fear the concentration camps or the Gestapo.

-Hitler was a hero to the 127 million ethnic Germans throughout Europe, whom he wanted to unite into the Greater German Empire, a dream that had been discussed in his native Austria for over 50 years

-In 1936, Hitler was more loved and admired than all the other world leaders put together. He was also the only world leader who was actively helping the Zionists with their plan to reclaim Palestine as their country.

-The rest of the world, particularly Americans, ignored these early warnings; at that time America was a segregated country with institutionalized racism, and there were many restricted neighborhoods where Jews were not allowed to buy a home. American universities had quotas for Jewish students and numerous clubs and organizations did not allow Jews as members.

-In August 1936, the Olympic games were being held in Berlin, and the Nazis had removed all the bums, winos and male prostitutes from the streets, sending them to Dachau or Sachsenhausen for six months of rehabilitation. Then in a concession to the liberals in America, Great Britain and France, who were threatening to boycott the games, the anti-Semitic signs and slogans on the city streets were temporarily removed and the anti-Jewish newspapers were taken off the stands.

-Charles Lindbergh, who was America's greatest hero after flying solo to Europe, was the special guest of Hitler at the Olympics and sat beside him at the games. Lindbergh had by then moved to England in an effort to get away from the rampant crime in America. He was so impressed with Germany's right-wing Utopia that, by 1938, he was making plans to move there and Hitler's chief architect, Albert Speer, had been commissioned to design a house for him.

-Kristallnacht marked the end of Hitler's popularity and the Western world's admiration for Germany

http://www.scrapbookpages.com/Sachsenhausen/introduction.html

Well, this movement seems to be gaining momentum as of late and I see a post like this on every forum I go to.

I don't know how I feel. Part of me agrees with Patton - I mean, these guys have been training and training and training... some with adverse social and physical repercussions - like lost relationships and injuries. Part of me thinks they deserve this moment.

Someone I knew had an oppurtunity to be in the 2008 Olympics for shooting. He went to high school with me and was friends with my best friend (personally, I didn't care for him much). It would have been neat to A) see someone I know and B) see someone from Delaware in the Summer Olympics. In the end, though, it was simply impossible for him to travel as much as was going to have to.

But the other part of me sees what China does and their almost calous view toward human life...

So I have to admit, I'm torn. I'll just do whatever the news tells me to do.

Maybe we should boycott the 2012 Olympics for Britains role in the Iraq War.  For their allowal of torture flights landing on British soil, for interning people without trial. 

I respectfully submit that the US-led boycott of the 1980 Moscow games was a waste of time.  It had no effect on anything except to ruin a perfectly good Olympic competition.

Likewise, the Soviet-led boycott of the 1984 LA games was equally useless.  It had no effect on anything except to ruin a perfectly good olympic competition.

I see no reason to consider the 2008 Bejing games to be any different.  Boycotts of the olympics are a waste of time - political grandstanding of the worst kind.

If people want to send a message to China, that's fine - try boycotting Chinese made products - put your money where your mouth is and stop demanding that olympic athletes make the sacrifice on your behalf.

Olympic boycotts are the cost-free, risk-free way to protest (only the athletes have to pay the price).

I have no respect for cost-free, risk-free symbolic gestures.

Well, if they really abided by those standards, NO government would be able to hold the Olympic games... though, of the major nations, China's disregard for human life and personal rights is among the more agregious...

I guess this just gives the world a chance to really see what's going on. I'll be honest, up till now I though Tibet was treated like a sovereign nation. People think of Taiwan first...

Speaking of Taiwan, isn't it strange how they haven't seized the oppurtunity?

I know China wouldn't move against Taiwan and that's not what I meant. I meant action by Taiwan, like, say, developing their military?