Nicholas F. Benton

The Olympics Vs. Bush

The Winter Olympics underway in Turino, Italy, opened last Friday night with an elegant and inspiring ceremony that many characterized as a breath of sanity and fresh air in a world that has become increasingly hateful and dangerous.

But in reality it has only been since the Bush administration invaded Iraq that the contrast between the world that act created and the spirit of the Olympic Games has become so sharp. It wasn’t this acute a difference even during the Cold War.

As bad as the terrorist attacks of 9/11 were, they were viewed as the terrible acts of a tiny fanatical sect and not indicative of the tone of the world as a whole. While the subsequent U.S. effort to go after al Qaeda in Afghanistan was supported by the whole world with enthusiasm, the global unity that followed that attack disintegrated totally with Iraq.

That’s because the Bush administration insisted on throwing the military resources of the most powerful nation on the planet into an unprovoked invasion of a foreign nation, and act conducted with no significant support from any other quarter of the globe outside Britain.

As far as the unity of the planet goes, a terrible attack by a handful of zealots is a totally different proposition than a wholesale military invasion by a nation as powerful as the U.S. Ironically, one act helped unify the globe, the other has ripped it asunder.

The Bush military invasion has enflamed the Islamic world against the U.S. and the West in ways that never existed before, drawing in more and more mainstream elements of the Muslim societies to a hateful and war-like posture against the West.

Even in the era of the Cold War and the years leading up to it, the entire non-communist and non-fascist world was united in support of freedom and self-determination, and the games were always an opportunity to showcase those personal aspirations among the vast majority of the globe’s athletes, always tending to morally isolate police state regimes.

So it was unusual this time, indeed, to experience a majestic Olympics opening ceremony seem in such dramatic contrast to the world that the Bush administration has created.

This sense was not lost on Olympic organizers, either, despite the best efforts of NBC television commentators to downplay just that.

For example, a special award for cowardice and dereliction of duty goes to NBC’s Bob Costas, Mary Carrillo and Brian Williams, announcers of the opening ceremonies last Friday. They completely and totally covered up the significance of the decision by Olympic organizers to invite U.S. actress Susan Sarandon to be one of eight women in the entire world to carry the official Olympic flag into the ceremonies.

The decision to include Sarandon among such an elite group was monumental news. It could not have been a greater, more deliberate slap in the face to the Bush administration and all it has done to undermine world peace.

After all, perhaps next to Cindy Sheehan, there is no more high-profile, outspoken female critic of Bush in the U.S. than Sarandon.

Any honest reporter would have acknowledged that, and its implications for the games and the intent of the games’ organizers. This was hard news, imbedded in a lavish ceremony, especially as Sarandon carried the flag with the likes of Sophia Loren right past U.S. First Lady Laura Bush.

The choice by Olympic organizers of Yoko Ono and Peter Gabriel for major roles in the ceremonies was also indicative of the same spirit, but none was as dramatic and headline material like Sarandon’s surprise appearance.

Then there were the explosive comments by U.S. figure skating champ Johnny Weir, included in a profile video aired prior to his competition Tuesday night, and subsequently edited entirely out of on-line print versions of NBC’s interview with him.

Weir, who doesn’t intend to be a pawn of anyone’s political agenda, nonetheless in his own unique style quipped, “I see no point in pleasing other people. I know a lot of especially the more Republican people are afraid of what I mean to the sport, of what I’m going to say, of what revolutionary, crazy things are going to come out of my mouth. And, you know, good for them. They should be scared.”

That’s the epitome of freedom, of independence, of everything that the Olympic Games affirm in defining a better destiny for all persons on this planet in the spirit of mutual respect among all humans and their individual aspirations.

Such are the times that even an American athlete feels that Olympic spirit must strive to express itself against so-called “Republican people.”

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