Thoughts on North Korea’s prisoner release

Learning that the two female journalists were released from North Korean custody is welcome news regardless of who gets the credit. Even though they work for Al Gore, which means two more socialist votes in the next election, it is welcome news. Maybe having experienced how collectivist regimes operate they will have a change of heart about supporting such an agenda and about working for Captain Planet.

Regardless, I have a few thoughts to offer that no one else, at least to my knowledge, has put forth.

North Korea knows these women weren’t spies. Anyone who pays but scant attention to America’s journalistic corps knows full well they aren’t about to spy for our benefit. And they certainly wouldn’t spy against a “worker’s paradise” like the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).

The reason Kim Jong Il’s repressive regime arrested, charged and sentenced these women had noting to do with suspected spying. It was to make America crawl. Okay, we crawled. Maybe we had no choice. No one wanted those women to rot in a North Korean prison for twelve years.

However, their release meant breaking from past practice, one in which America didn’t cave to heavy-handed tactics. What happens the next time an American is taken hostage in some third world hellhole?

Kim Jong Il and his merry band of communist cutthroats recognized an opportunity, much like Iran did a few months ago, to poke America in the eye and dance away scot-free. North Korea now stands tall in the eyes of other small dictatorships that share the DPRK’s disdain for human liberty and the rule of an evenly applied law.

Ironically, one can argue that such notions have become archaic even in the United States. Our government is expanding, our individual liberty waning and our economic freedom deteriorating at fearful rates. But that’s another matter.

Congratulations, North Korea. You identified an opportunity and capitalized on it. But use caution. Your success is eerily similar to the capitalist economic model you so scorn. Also, while you may appear the unbowed bulldog in the eyes of the world’s other Chihuahuas, you are still a Chihuahua yourself. Sorry. That’s just how it is.

As for the two journalists, I’m sure they’re elated. I can’t imagine what they experienced facing twelve years in a communist prison. Regular labor in such a regime is no picnic. What must “hard labor” be like? Even so, if I were they, I would’ve been a little nervous about that flight home.

Bill Clinton negotiated their release. Apparently, if not for the former president they would still be jailed. They owe their freedom to William Jefferson Clinton. They owe him. Women, let that sink in for a minute.

Euna Lee and Laura Ling were locked in a jetliner, 30,000 feet above the Pacific Ocean, with Bill Clinton, for twelve hours. And they owed him. Prudence, not to mention chastity, would dictate they make other travel arrangements.

Bill Clinton has, shall we say, a wayward history in his relations with women. This is especially true when he has the upper hand, such as while Governor of Arkansas, or with young interns in the Oval Office, or when someone owes him a favor. Once the landing gear was up and with all that time to kill, Bill Clinton might have decided to call in his IOUs, if you know what I mean. Can’t you just hear him now?

“You know ladies, if it wasn’t for me you’d still be in that musty old North Korean dungeon. I helped ya’ll out of a hard situation. Now old Bill needs help with a hard situation. What d’ ya’ say, ladies?”

Surely a former president would have better manners. But when the subject is Bill Clinton you just never know.