Phil Sheridan: History will eventually judge China

Philadelphia Inquirer, The, August, 2008 by Phil Sheridan Inquirer Columnist

BEIJING - The Beijing Olympics were a wonderful success, even if giving the Games to Beijing winds up being a terrible decision. Turns out an authoritarian government that operates without a conscience is superbly equipped to stage the enormous enterprise that the modern corporate Olympics have become.

The power to bulldoze communities for venues, command a limitless labor force to work limitless hours and reach into bottomless pockets to pay for it all - well, that eliminates most of the obstacles facing other host cities. The London 2012 organizers are already taking care to lower expectations. "You are unlikely to see Games of this stature ever again," London Organizing Committee chairman Sebastian Coe said. These are not the first Olympics to be held in a controversial...