No case for even devil's advocates

Many supporters of those protestors who went beyond their rights of peaceful demonstration to disrupt, or at least attempt to disrupt, the torch relay in London, Paris and San Francisco claim their attacks on the torch were launched solely against China and not against the Olympics.

But the fact that these attacks against torchbearers and the flame were physical, and that the torch is a symbol of globally accepted Olympic values, negates such claims' validity, reducing them to nothing more than smoke in mirrors.

It is contradictory to claim to not oppose the Olympic spirit when you attack its - not only China's - icon, which represents the ideals of tolerance, harmony and peace. Instead, these assailants hope to reinvent the torch as a lightening rod for intolerance, conflict and divisiveness - values antithetical to those of the Olympic spirit.