I'm with the President on this one. It's best to let the Chinese handle their affairs, and let us handle those of the United States.

I did a 4-2-08 post partly entitled ""It's best to let them handle their affairs, and let us handle those of the United States."

Friday in The New York Times there was a article entitled "Bush to Attend Opening Ceremony in Beijing."

The article noted that the White House said Thursday that President Bush would attend the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics next month, a decision fraught with international political symbolism that quickly drew criticism from advocates for human rights.

The advocates have been pressing world leaders to boycott the Olympics or at least skip the opening ceremonies to protest China’s violent crackdown after riots in Tibet and its support for the government of Sudan, whose Darfur region remains enmeshed in violence.

I am with the President on this call. Although I no longer would like to take a jog or have a beer with the man as I would have in the past when I liked him although I disagreed with him on so many things, he is the president. As such, he should be there on opening night. As I stated in the 4-2-08 post:

Just as I think Bush's attempt at nation-building and establishing a democracy in Iraq has proved to be a destablizing disaster in the Middle East, I don't think America needs to return to the Carter years when Carter advocated a policy that held other countries to the highest moral standard possible.

This is going on now with respect to the Beijing Olympics and its opening ceremonies.

Personally, I have very unpleasant memories of Carter's promotion of a foreign policy that put human rights at the forefront, this leading to his call for and the resulting Unites States boycott of the 1980 lympics after Soviet tanks rolled into Afghanistan.
_______________

UPDATE ON JULY 6 from The Washington Post:

President Bush Sunday defended his decision to attend the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games next month in Beijing, saying that to skip the event -- as human rights activists have urged -- would be an "affront to the Chinese people."

Bush was joined by Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, who announced for the first time that he too would attend the opening ceremonies. "There certainly may be problems with China, but even so, they are striving to improve things," Fukuda said at a press conference here with Bush.