Olympic Theme Was One World - So Let's Be a Part of It Again

I am personally glad that President Bush didn't bow to the pressure to boycott the Beijing Olympics. I have to admit my first thought was that it was a good idea, but on reflection I decided that it would accomplish little positive, and more than enough negative. It would not help to boycott what turned out to be an American success story, or indeed, many of them.

I do think the Chinese really tried to impress the world with their hosting and they too succeeded as well, especially in the Opening Ceremony. I still shake my head at the accomplishments and precision of those thousands of "volunteers". It took far more practice and unpaid volunteers than the U.S. or likely any other free country could muster. And how many U.S. cities could virtually shut down their smokestack industries or tell half the people that they could not drive during the run up to the Games? I guess Communist or other totalitarian countries could order this kind of compliance, but most free countries could not.

Yet China was saying nearly all the right things - One World, Openness, Teamwork, Friendship, and on and on. Maybe if they keep saying it to themselves more and more...well, practice makes perfect. We can only hope.

Of much bigger import is that the U.S. continue its openness and commonality with the other nations and peoples of the world. It is tempting right now to isolate because it seems so many countries "do not like us". We could stop our foreign aid to those who would vilify us for various things. We could even rattle a few more swords to try to get some regimes to comply with our wishes. Some of that might work, but a better angle might be to keep providing aid to starving countries; send $1 billion to Georgia for reconstruction after their mini-war with the big bear, Russia. We need to keep doing what's right (and more if it - Darfur, anyone?) and to hell with the America-bashers. Once we get disentangled from Iraq after we are successful at "Iraqification", we can raise our world standing to what it once was by being strong and firm to dictators, friendly to struggling pre-democracies, and kind to the people everywhere. Yes, kind to the people who, as I have said before, are not our enemies even in those countries where the government leaders may be hostile to us.

We may have to share the high rank of "superpower" sooner than we think, but we can enhance our chances to retain the first position by smart diplomatic efforts backed up with a strong military and humanitarian force. Let's hope whoever wins our Presidential Election in November has the smarts and determination to not give in to bullying anywhere, while helping to the extent we can, everywhere.