Are we serious? The idea that the United States or any other democratic nation would send their Olympic team to Beijing this summer in the shadow of events in places like Sudan and now Tibet is pathetic. It was one thing for the United States to send its Olympic team to Berlin ‘before’ we really knew what the Nazis were up to but sending our team to Beijing would be like sending one to Berlin in 1940. The evidence is in. China’s soft-power support of the al-Bashir regime in the Sudan has resulted in the destruction of hundreds of thousands of lives in Darfur and is about to be responsible for a repeat in South Sudan. Who knows what will happen to the Tibetan protesters.

Some might argue that having the Olympic spotlight on China will force it to act more in conformity with what one would expect from an emerging super-power. As we say in the Bronx , fuggedaboutit. China is neither insecure enough to care about some sniping from the West nor does it really have any reason to change. If anything it will likely display an air of triumphalism directed mainly at its own population which will say: “Look! We can treat you like abused cattle but nobody cares….so don’t even think about changing things!”

I fear that the US government has little moral authority these days...it's too bad really. The world could really use some.