American Hooligans

It always seemed to me that the IAOC’s entire plan could be boiled down to:

1. Give China Olympic Games

2. China would somehow stop being a repressive communist dictatorship frantically striving to modernize no matter the cost and emerge fully grown into a beautiful Western-style democracy.

3. Profit

Of course, that’s not quite the way it’s going down.

China’s public relations nightmare will blight its Olympic dreams. Recent riots in Tibet, and Beijing’s heavy-handed response, are just the latest in a series of debacles tarnishing China’s image. Others include the country’s poor air quality that threatens the health of athletes, China’s support of Burma’s military junta and its since-reversed opposition to sending UN peacekeepers to Darfur.

How can this be?!