Tuesday, August 04, 2009

Bill sticks it to Hill (again)

So hot on the heels of the North Koreans calling out his wife, Bill Clinton heads over there to rescue two American journalists who were sentenced to 12 years of hard labor for illegally entering the country. There were photo ops and North Korean press releases/propaganda. Pretty much a good time was had by all.

But I don't get it. We are on the outs with North Korea right? Hillary said we shouldn't give them any attention. But yet we did. I am happy for the two women and their families, but I have to say, if I were President I wouldn't have done this.

The White House says Bill went completely as a private citizen, the Northies say he carried a message from Obama. Either way, there is no way he went without the approval of the White House.

What about them firing missiles? What about the sanctions? Why are we giving the Dear Leader a global stage upon which to prance? Because conditions in North Korean jails are too harsh?

Even if the journalists didn't actually enter North Korea as they were alleged to have done, I believe that this circus is too high a price to pay for their release.

I wonder what we will have to do to "win" the release of the next group?

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

What was the "carrot"? North Korea received some type of concession and inquiring minds would like to know what it is...

Obesity said...

Good on Bill Clinton for helping free those people.

Anonymous said...

I don't think this is complicated. There were two women chained up.

And Bill thought that was pretty cool. He may start visiting women's prisons in the U.S. now.

He may have seen "Women in Chains" on the late movie, and...well, nature took its course.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgQmMRTJt0g

Unknown said...

"I wonder what we will have to do to "win" the release of the next group?"

We will not do it again, and should not. These women were irresponsible. I don't think the fact that the former President flew over to get the sister of a famous journalist released, while we make no attempt to rescue not so famous citizens, will go unnoticed. By allowing this to be done this administration has put itself in a bad position.

Don't we have this same situation on the border of Iran, gas up the plane Bill!

Shawn said...

anon: +1 to insight.

"I did not have sexual relations with that North Korea."

(I decided that misspelling 'country' was just too much, even in reference to The Ladies Man)

Angus: I'm assuming you're saying 'hey, if we're going to play this sanctions game, let's at least be consistent,' correct? As in: are you opposed to sanctions in general, or is this an area where you break from the libertarian mainstream (hahahahaha...as if there's any mainstream).

Anonymous said...

Since I can't ever understand Angus' posts, I have to ask for clarification.

Are you making the assumption that this whole thing wasn't a ridiculous staged event right out of central casting?

MaxSpeak said...

Evidently, having made their mistake, the two women should have endured years of hard labor for the sake of the Collective.

Which blog is this again?