Having learned nothing, we move on to other parts of the globe, currently China.
While peaceful demonstations might have caused China to rethink its global image problem, extreme measures like boycotts and attacking the torch are likely to have the opposite effect.
The sight of mobs acting out is the very thing it fears most, for pete's sakes, and the public shaming of boycotts is likely to cause Beijing to draw inward and resort to even more harsh tactics.
Being very nationalistic, the Chinese public would approve.
If alienating both the regime and the public in China, what has been accomplished?

I'm stunned and shocked to find that I agree with Pres. Bush and that Nancy Pelosi is dead wrong.

Know your enemy before you rush into battle.
Or, risk shooting yourself in a more vital part of anatomy than the foot.

Edgar Snow was writing the best stuff about China 50 years ago, today I would argue that it's James Fallows:

http://jamesfallows.theatlantic.com/archives/20...

Lest there be any misunderstanding (not by you but by others), I want to make it clear that my post is not indicative of a bias against China.

In fact, I think that the Chinese Revolution was one of the most extraordinary events of the last millennium. Even allowing that it would take decades to move from an authoritarian dynastic system that enslaved its people to fulfilling the promise of the revolution, what came afterwards is so despicable in so many ways.

The fact that the Tibetan people were enslaved by their Buddhist masters does not change Beijing's contemporary enslavement of those people.

In your post said: “I would be remiss to not also mention that our gauzy, Hollywood-esque view of Tibet also sucks and is a few mantras short of a full prayer wheel.”

Along those same lines I'd like to point you to a post my friend Ian wrote for Why We Worry today. It talks in detail about our media's bias against China.