Americans Gone Wild…..Again.
29 December 2009 4:49 am by psychodrew
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34611705/ns/world_news-asiapacific/
Former President Bill Clinton’s visit to Pyongyang to help free two journalists detained for illegal crossing the North Korean border was a heavily publicized event this past August. Perhaps less well publicized was Sen. Jim Webb’s visit to Myannmar that same month to obtain the release of John Yettaw, an American citizen who was sentenced to seven years in prison after he illegally swam across a lake behind the home of detained democracy activist Suu Kyi.
Now, we have American missionary of South Korean decent who intentionally crossed the North Korean/Chinese border to create an international incident to draw attention to human rights abuses in North Korea.
North Korea said Tuesday it has detained an American who it says illegally entered the country last week.
“On Dec. 24, a U.S. citizen illegally entered the country across the North Korea-China border and has been detained. The person is currently undergoing questioning by a related agency,” the official KCNA news agency said.
Robert Park, 28, a U.S. activist trying to raise global awareness of the North Korean human rights situation, crossed into the reclusive North on Friday, other activists said.
I think that the government needs to reconsider this policy of bailing out stupid Americans who take stupid, unnecessary risks with their safety and our national security. However well-intentioned his motives, this missionary, Robert Park, is trying to force the Obama administration to spend precious resources on North Korea, when the State Department is trying to juggle other MAJOR problems. If we go and bail his ass out, other people won’t be far behind. He chose to break the laws of North Korea. He wanted to create a scene. Let him spend some time in North Korean prison thinking about that for a while.
This post was submitted by psychodrew.
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The assessment I came to re: Gore’s journalists is that they were not only both women, but the connection to Mr. Gore was also key, with their honest mistake to cross the border unintentional, which matters. As for Webb, that was an opportunity on both sides to break a deadlock on communication, so why not take it?
Now Park.
I just don’t see that State will be derailed from their “MAJOR” problems, psychodrew.
That said, choice is just that, with Park’s decision dangerously stupid. So, on that you have a real point.
I’d like to hear others weigh in.
I feel about this guy the same way I feel when ever I read “three climers lost on Mt. Anywhere”
Why on EARTH should further lives be indangered and gazillions of dollars flushed down a rat hole to “rescue” some thrill seeking morons?!!!
Ya wants some thrills? WELL FREEZIN TA DEATH onthe side of a freaking Mountain is PRETTY THRILLING ISN’T IT!!
Same goes or maybe even DOUBLE goes for
missionaries” who go where they’re not asked trying to stuff their particular brand of uperstition down an idiginus populations throats.
Add to that the fact that in your OWN rule book it says you’re supposed to “suffer for my names sake”
So ENJOY your marterdom and STOP FARKIN WHINNING!
secularhuman, you certainly are a humanitarian aren’t you? Everything seems to boil down to the old cost/benifit ratio for you. Them damn “missionaries,” they sure are the worst aren’t they? You sound like every “stand on your own two feet” “suvivalist” right wing Conservative that I’ve ever had the misfortune of conversing with. Peace
This is such a different situation from the other two examples. Mr. Park intentionally crossed the border and wanted to be arrested, so he could make a political statement about the government of North Korea. I’m sure that if he had asked the State Department first, they would have told him not to do it, and there are better ways to bring to the public the human rights abuses in North Korea.
The State Department should do what it normally does with issues like this, but shouldn’t go to any extraordinary plans for his release. Mr. Park got the reaction he wanted, He shouldn’t expect any special treatment.
Has Mr. Park asked for help? Don’t recall that he has. If not, what is the point of this diary?
kris, to take a poke at the “religious” is all. Peace
Well imhotep if that’s the case I’ll just scroll on by this one. I am tired of the bashing of people of faith on this site.
Kris, seeing as Mr. Park is now in the hands of the North Koreans, how would any of us know if he has asked for help? The point of this post is, should the US go to the extraordinary lengths we went threw in the other two cases.
Also Imhotep, Mr. Park being some kind of missionary has nothing to do with this. It has to do with the fact that Mr. Park crossed into North Korea intentionally to create an incident over human rights abuses by the North Korean government. His religion, whatever it is has no bearing.
Kris, this issue is not about religion. Just because Imhotep say’s it is doesn’t make it so. I would be interested on your take as to what if anything the State Department should do. This thread has to do about what our policy should be in situations like this and how Obama should respond if at all.
I like the idea that America will go to great lengths to bail it’s crazier citizens out of odd, self-imposed situations and international trouble. We fight with each other over religion, politics, race, etc. At the end of the day, we’re more like sibling rivals who have no problems beating the hell out of each other, but if someone outside the family gets involved…we protect our own.
I’d rather America get it’s citizens out of trouble first, then deal with punishments or admonishments on our own terms.
For me the question is, do we make an international incident out of this or do we deal with this under normal conditions. This was an overt act by Mr. Park to create an incident were none existed. How much political hay should we make with North Korea over Mr Park?
Apropos of nothing, I’ll be on MSNBC @ around 3:30 pm today.
now, back to the topic…
angels81 says:
29 December 2009 at 12:24 pm
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The media will answer that question, right?
If Mr. Park wants to sit in a North Korean prison to make his statement, fine. If not, we start with some quiet diplomacy and go from there, I don’t know what the tipping point is because it’s a blatantly political incident. I’d still rather the U.S. be the one to discipline this guy.
When we literally have children here DIE because they don’t have money for health care I think it’s ridiculous to expend monies and effort that could much better be utilized helping the larger number of needy citizens instead of being wasted on pulling narcissistic self agrandizing thrill seeker’s chestnuts out of the fire.
imhopless, you sound like every whinny uberlefty sit on your ass coffehouse revolutionary I’ve ever known. Tell you what, how about we set up a voluntary fund and YOU donate YOUR buckeroos to save the idiots?
As for missionaries, well yeah, as far as I’M concerned they ARE pretty low on my list. Keep your cultural colonializm thank you very much. I don’t care that much about anyones superstitous beliefs one way or the other…UNTIL they start trying to destroy other cultures or start telling OTHER superstition believers they are following the WRONG superstition. OR start trying to jam their nonsense into science classes.
Missionaries have historically been the point men for cultural invasion. They were used to attempt to desrtoy MY peoples heritage and everywhere they have gone have brought nothing but hell on earth for the indigenous peoples.
So NO this thread isn’t about missionaries per say. However the fact that because they ARE missionaries it is assumed by them that the Government will make a special effort to save theier bacon from the situations they have pointedly sought out.
It’s even more ridiculous to fund and fight pointless and endless wars against ghosts we label as enemies. Peace
“ghosts we label as enemies.”
Do ghosts dress up in explosives laden underwear and try to kill a plane full of civilians? Do ghosts try to set off explosive laden shoes and kill civilians? Do ghosts fly airliners into the twin towers and murder 3,000 civilians?
Even for YOU that is about the most delusional, moronic excuse for a post yet.
Ghosts. These are REAL bad guys that are REAL killers. Ask any of the families of the dead from 9/11
These are the guys or their soulmates who are ACTUALLY responsible for those deaths.
Find them.
KILL them, and their friends, and their supporters.
What say we begin with the Crips and the Bloods? Or the Mexican Mafia and MS13? Or any number of other bad guys right here at home? Rather than running all around the world trying to finger a few dozen Holy Men. Whom, by the way, we’ve NOT been able to find since 9-11. Even though we’ve killed tens of thousands of human beings and fucked up half-a-dozen countries in these endless and ruinously expensive ghost wars. You sir, are really quite mad. Peace
So, for the record, I am a devout Christian. This is not an anti-Christian/religious diary. I posted this because I got really irritated when I saw that an activist tried to high-jack American foreign policy.
I would agree that the situation with the journalists was different because they didn’t intend to cross the border (although they acknowledged knowingly crossing the border) and their political connections with Al Gore. My point is that we can’t allow risk-takers or activists to high-jack American foreign policy.
psychodrew, don’t worry about the risk-takers and activists, because the Zionists high-jacked American foreign policy a long time ago. Worry about how to wrest it back from them. Peace
Imhotep, I’m trying to figure out if you are serious when you compare street gangs to international terrorist groups who have declared war on western civilizations? First off these people are not ghosts. They have killed innocent civilians all over the world in the name of Jihad. They have blown up hotels, ships, planes, resort areas, anywhere they can find innocent people to kill for the terror effect.
I remember when people were bitching about Bush attacking the wrong country and not going after the people who were causing all the terror around the world. Now it seems that the same people are bitching at Obama for doing exactly what we blamed bush for not doing.
If you think we should just leave these people alone, and they will go away, you are deluded.
Sigh,
Being no friend of the Christian Crazies they are still citizens of this nation. As they are citizens it is the duty of our government to attempt to yank them out of the bear traps they may have stepped into.
Granted if Mr Park’s frontal lobes had not been numbed by his rejection of modicum of reason, by his rejection of any sort of rational thinking, he would not be in the situation he finds himself in.
Be that as it may, it is the obligation of the government, specifically the SoS to pull this man’s fat out of the fryer. Equal protection under the law means just that- every citizen is treated equally. If the government moves heaven and earth to release two female journalists it is honor bound to rescue this man too. Remember what Shakespeare said via Hamlet “God’s bodikin, man, .. Use every man after his desert, and who shall ’scape whipping?”
“we can’t allow risk-takers or activists to high-jack American foreign policy.”
Well good luck on that psychodrew, what’s the plan there? Are you going to rip Joe Lie-bermans vocal cords out his throat? Are you going to shut down AIPAC and all the other lobbyists? Will you disband and dismantle FOI? Will you send Bill Kristel back to the slimy hole he emerged from?
Ah; to dream the impossible dream, to fight the unbeatable foe, …
come on Taylor, join me on the bridge, show me those Broadway chops.
1″What say we begin with the Crips and the Bloods?”
Have they flown any aitliners into any buildings lately? Seems local police and FBI are doing a fairly decent job arresting these folks when they do their dirty deeds
2.” Or the Mexican Mafia and MS13?”
Have THEY flown any airliners into any buildings lately? Seems the Mexican Police and Army are doing their own jobs on these folks.
3.Or any number of other bad guys right here at home?
If you are talking about the Ultraright militias and UBERchristian dommestic terrorists I actually would be agreeing with you if you were talking sense and saying we SHOULD be going after them. BECAUSE WE SHOULD! They are JUST AS BAD as the AlQaeda fundamentelists!
4.” Rather than running all around the world trying to finger a few dozen Holy Men.
? Not really a sentence but it would seem you were heading in the direction of we shouldn’t be going after them. Maybe if we asked them REAL nice and offered them anything they wanted, like maybe deleteing the letter W from the alphabet they wouldn’t hurt us.
5.” Whom, by the way, we’ve NOT been able to find since 9-11.”
WRONG! We had them bottled up and ready to kill when that moron Bush and his criminal cohort Cheney STOPPED the operation so they could invade Iraq and make Halaburton even richer then it already was.
6.” Even though we’ve killed tens of thousands of human beings and fucked up half-a-dozen countries in these endless and ruinously expensive ghost wars.”
Bush has certainly got to answer some day for his absolutely insane and completely illogicol invasion of Iraq. On that SINGLE point we agree. As for your “fu*ked up half a dozen countries” Really? Which ones. Iraq, yup, fu*ked it up good. Afghanistan? Looks more like the Taliban gets the credit for the majority of the deaths and damage there skippy.
7.”You sir, are really quite mad. Peace”
Coming from a mujhawieny like yourself sir, I wear that as a badge of honor.
Piece of work indeed.
angels81 said “I remember when people were bitching about Bush attacking the wrong country and not going after the people who were causing all the terror around the world. Now it seems that the same people are bitching at Obama for doing exactly what we blamed bush for not doing.”
Amen to that brother. These same mujhawienies were screaming about Bushco not going after the REAL guys who attacked us. Now we ARE and they are screaming about that.