U.S. National Security Stephen Hadley, top aide to President George W. Bush has finally weighed as a rational voice to tamp down the rhetoric and try to cool the tensions between the U.S. and China.
During an appearance at ABC Sunday's "This Week", Mr. Hadley said that “The whole issue of opening ceremonies is a nonissue,”
“I think it is a way of dodging what really needs to happen.”
It is clear that from within the Bush administration, the stridency of the "Team Tibet Shangrila" push to derail the Beijing Olympics this summer and exploit these games as a stage to hector China's leaders about Tibet and a host of issues about human rights has backfired.
Instead of softening Chinese officials' position over the Dalai Lama, it has stiffened their position, and unleased within China and outside of China among the ethnic Chinese diasporic communities a stiffening resistance against China bashing and demonization.
Mr. Hadley is pushing for "quiet diplomacy" over the "mau mau" tactics orchestrated by European heads of state with the first European leader German Chancellor Angela Merkel announcing her boycott of the openning ceremonies, further stoked by French President Nicholas Sarkozy, who demagogue the issue.
Who cares if Merkel or Sarkozy (W. Bush called him "Elvis") attend or not attend the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics on August 8, 2008 ? Germany and France have no moral standing to hector China when they themselves have their own "skeletons" in their own backyards.
Even former American President Jimmy Carter has taken sides on the quiet diplomacy" side of the equation, and differentiate the boycott of the Moscow World Olympics during his watch as U.S. president in 1980.
"That was a totally different experience in 1980." Carter said.
Carter futher said, “I hope that all the countries will go ahead and participate in the Olympics in Beijing.”
Kudos to Hadley and Carter. At least you are making a lot more sense than Speaker Nancy Pelosi, maniacally obsessed with "Tibet Shangrila." "That Lady" as crooner Frank Sinatra used to sing, "is a "Tramp"." Or is it more like "Vamp"?
