For the most part I sided with the protesters of the Olympic games. China's human rights record is abysmal, and their stance towards Tibet is obviously unjust and should be reversed by any means necessary. But, I'm also a pragmatist and Fareed Zakaria's suggestion that the protests could have some dire unintended consequences has made me pause.

In his words: "Diplomacy can be scoffed at, but every multinational business that has had success in persuading the Chinese government to change course will testify that public humiliation does not work nearly as well on the regime as private pressure."