The Olympic Games were an occasion for political statements. The West boycotted Moscow O.G in protest of the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan. The communist block boycotted the Los Angeles in retaliation. From 1988 Soul Olympic Games to Athens Olympic Games, things seemed to go smoothly, except for fear of terrorist attacks after 9/11.
But when the boycott of the Moscow O.G was about the USSR foreign policy, now the threat of Beijing O.G is because of China’s internal policy. Maybe the current protests in Tibet were well planned and staged as the Tibetans can’t have a better moment to publicize their cause than the moment when the focus is on China hosting the Olympic Games.
The Chinese government may have little embarrassment as it is used to Western media portraying it negatively because of human right records and the current great divide between the rich and the poor in rural and urban areas. China can avert the influence of foreign media reports by staging a great propaganda at home showing the great progress it has made in the recent years and the outside doesn’t want China to be a unified and strong country.
During the games, China will have the means to make them look a big success. It will use televised transmissions of the games. As a country of bout 1.4 billion people, it won’t lack the huge crowds to attend the games. The fact that US president has confirmed that he will attend the opening ceremony will give a boast to the Chinese.
The Western media can boycott the games. But today there are hundreds of channels in the third world countries that will transmit the games. Many governments in the third world countries use big sporting events to give their people a “good time”. So they went miss on Beijing Olympic Games as they won’t seek to sour their relations with the Chinese government.
Maybe the current events in Tibet are a big worry for the Chinese government. But its control of the media and the streets, plus the glamour of the games and their installations can be a good hypnosis for people at home to look at the good side of things. Tibet then will be a parenthesis in local media as the focus will be on the game results.
Unrest in Basra has been stoked by a variety of militias and criminal gangs. Iraq’s Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has given Shia militants in the southern city of Basra 72 hours to lay down their arms or face “severe penalties”.
Iraq is still far from taking control of its security as long as there are heavily armed militias like that Sadr Militia. Iraq can’t continue under the protection of foreign forces which so far have failed to bring full stability to the country.
It’s up to the Iraqis to solve their problems among themselves through national reconciliation and without any interference from other countries, especially, the USA and Iran. foreign alliances will just perpetuate the current violence and instability.
Iraq also needs a national army made up of all sections of its population, mainly Kurds, Shiites and Sunnis. It also needs friendly neighbors. As now it is surrounded by Iran and Syria the greatest enemies of the USA in the region, Iraq will have to keep vigilant as its close alliance with the USA will make it constantly on the alert. Iran will continue to use the Shiites opposed to the presence of the USA in Iraq to create political havocs in it.
On the whole, the Iraqis must choose between making their country a land of peace or simply a battleground in which they sacrifice just their own countrymen, among whom the number of deaths has reached hundreds of thousands since the US invasion in 2003.
US troops will surely continue to operate in the country. For the US having Iraq under its protection is meant to keep control of the whole of the Middle Est. There is no prospect of the diffusion of tensions in the regions in which the US has long term interests. US military presence in Iraq as in the other Gulf States will continue for years, perhaps until the region dries up of its oil sources and countries like Iran are no longer considered as a major security threat.