It’s that time again; time to pretend we all care about winter sports to prevent our patriotism from coming into question. Next Friday, the 2014 Winter Olympics will kick off in Sochi, Krasnodar Krai, Russia.
Given our recent and pending wintry weather, Baton Rouge could have probably hosted a day’s worth of events.
What sets these games apart from most recent winter games is the very real threat of a terrorist attack by radical Islamic Chechen terrorists.
Choosing Sochi as the location for the 2014 Winter Games was perhaps one of the dumbest moves made by both the Russian government, who entered the bidding process with the city, and the International Olympic Committee, which chose Sochi over Salzburg, Austria, and Pyeongchang, South Korea.
Just a short plane ride away from Sochi is the Russian federal subject of Chechnya, which is home to heavy political and religious unrest. So much so, that after the fall of the Soviet Union, there were two major attempts to wrest control of the republic away from Moscow.
To this date, there is a continuing insurgency in the North Caucasus by Chechen separatists. Basically, Sochi sits in relative proximity to the worst neighborhood in the Russian Federation.
A country of 6,592,800 square miles, there are countless other cities in Russia that the government could have bid, most of them icy enough to host the games.
Cities such as Saint Petersburg, Murmansk and Vladivostok would all have been perfectly capable of sustaining the weather needed to be the host city. I mean, it is Russia.
The only place I would not recommend ever host the games is Volgograd, formerly Stalingrad. It was subject to attacks by the Chechen insurgency last December, with promises by the terrorists for more at Sochi.
That, and I do not think the German Olympic team would make an appearance at Volgograd. See Operation Barbarossa for reasons why.
Furthermore, the IOC had an opportunity to avoid the mess altogether. While a choice like Pyeongchang would have been risky with that crackpot dictator right across the border, Salzburg was beyond perfect. Europe has learned its lesson when it comes to Olympic safety.
However, top officials in the federal government think it is more than safe for Americans to travel to Sochi. When asked if he would go, former CIA deputy director Michael Morell said in an interview with “CBS This Morning” that he would “take his family” to the games. He did state, however, that these are the “‘most dangerous Olympics’ he has experienced in his adult life.”
House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said on “Face the Nation” that “It’s a time-honored tradition. If we do not support our team and show up, I think the terrorists are winning and I think that’s what they’re trying to do here.” He then added that “Having said that, I would say that the security threat to the Olympics, this particular Olympics is the greatest I’ve ever seen.”
While the presence of 40,000 Russian security personnel will probably dissuade any would be martyrs for Chechnya, it does not change the fact that Sochi as a host city was a bad idea from its conception.
The very last thing anyone wants is a repeat of the 1972 Summer Olympic Games, where 11 Israeli Olympians and a German police officer were killed by the Palestinian group Black September.
If it could happen in the heart of Germany, who is to say it will not happen a short distance from a hotbed of insurgent activity?
Ryan McGehee is a 21-year-old political science, history, and international studies major from Zachary. Follow him on Twiter @JRyanMcGehee.