You mean to tell us that two journalists reporting for an American news network and arrested as spies in North Korea have been released? And that all it took for North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il to “pardon” them for their “offenses” against his state was a visit from former President Bill Clinton?
Yup. No bombs. No Tomahawk cruise missiles. No invasion. No lies to the American people or Congress about North Korea’s (unfortunately all-too-real) warmaking capabilities. Just a little diplomacy from an ex-president, a photo op, and then a plane ride back to Los Angeles with the two intrepid reporters.
We anticipate the right-wing — which never could give Clinton credit for anything — will go on at length about how Clinton’s actions legitimized a brutal dictator, how we should never meet with or talk to our enemies, as it only gives them stature in the eyes of the world, and how freelance diplomacy is always bad.
But in this case, that diplomacy freed two people from an unjust prison sentence in a repressive regime without anybody firing a single shot in anger. Surely that’s a better way to resolve disputes such as this than to shed blood unnecessarily? And surely, when talks can be productive, they should be undertaken?
Kudos to Clinton. If we at Various Things & Stuff are ever held by a hostile regime, we sure hope he’s around to save our ass.
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