The Fugue State

In 1980,  Athletes from around countries around the world, who had trained their entire lives to compete in a global event were left in the cold.  Many proud Canadian athletes had their dreams stolen.  Why did this happen?  How and why did so many athletes lose so much?

It was in the height of the Cold War.  And the USSR was at war in a far away country called Afghanistan.  At the same time, the Olympic Games was being hosted in Moscow.  Afghanistan was a bit of  a pet project of the United States at the time.  The US funneled money and arms into its Mujahadeen(who later became the Taliban)  in an attempt to destabilize the USSR.   The USSR had viewed Afghanistan as a place where Islamic guerrilla militants (ie, terrorists) were destabilizing peace in the region, and had sent their armed forces in to pacify the area.

Canada and the United States, among other countries in the free world held a boycott of the Soviet Union for their being at war in Afghanistan.  It was the largest boycott ever of the Olympics.

Flash forward to 2010.

Canada is at war with Islamic guerrilla militants in Afghanistan.   And yet we have the audacity to host the 2010 winter olympic games.   Do we not remember our boycott of the Soviet Union for this same reason?

If it is not worth boycotting a country over being at war in Afghanistan then the athletes who were left behind in 1980 deserve an official apology from the Canadian government.   We Canadians owe an apology to the people of Moscow, and Russia for needlessly slighting them for a cause that we should not have supported, that is, the people of Afghanistan.

However, if it is worth boycotting a country over being at war in Afghanistan then Canada should suggest, as it did in 1980, that all free Countries around the world boycott the country that is both hosting the games and who is at war, that is to say, us.  We should suggest that Russia, in particular boycott us.

Because if we fail to do either, the history books will recall what a gross act of hypocrisy we have committed, even if we choose to forget.

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 10th, 2009 at 11:35 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.