Posted on 6/22/2017, 1:48:11 PM by Kaslin
When the news of the murder of American Otto Warmbier by North Korean goons broke Monday it was a trending topic on Twitter for a while.
Soon, it was replaced by such pressing national issues as The Bachelorette, the Teen Choice Awards nominees and Better Call Saul’s season finale. I do love Better Call Saul, but the fate of characters on a show – even a good one – hardly compares to the torture and murder of an American by a foreign government.
Yet, this is the world in 2017 – a world where celebrity trumps reality, no matter the reality.
An American is murdered by a hostile foreign government and more people are interested in which actors are nominated as teens’ favorite comedy performer.
The horrible nature of what happened to Otto Warmbier cannot be overstated. His brain was destroyed by those monsters. And although they deserve retribution, it’s unlikely Kim Jong-Un and his barbarians will suffer any significant repercussions for their evil.
The evil the North Koreans perpetrated on Otto is visited on their own people regularly. Countless times each day, North Koreans are murdered, tortured, starved to death and worse by the regime. The world has done just about all it’s willing to do to stop it, which doesn’t seem like a whole lot.
Yes, there are sanctions. But sanctions in a country such as North Korea means the people suffer, not the leaders. Kim isn’t fat from eating his pets and dirt, as many peasants have been forced to do.
In left-wing military regimes where the people are oppressed, the leadership always lives like kings. They eat the best food, they have the latest gadgets, and so on. Their people suffer in the name of the cause – be it socialism, communism, etc. But it’s never the leadership.
Sure, they suffer the occasional purge – left-wing dictators do love their purges – but but until they’re tossed in a gulag or wiped out of existence by an anti-aircraft gun, life is pretty good for those in power. It’s been that way since the progressive concept of “isms” came into being.
Communism, fascism, socialism, they’ve always been about elites ruling the great unwashed, forcing the people they always claim their actions are meant to protect or represent into varying degrees of slavery to the state.
They all preach about equality. It’s just that some people are simply better, smarter and more noble than others, so they deserve more. Some people deserve more equality. At least until they become too popular or too highly regarded and are then disappeared.
Of course, China could rein in Kim, at least some, without even breaking a sweat. But why would the life of one American matter to China when the lives of tens of millions of their own people didn’t?
The most frustrating fact in the aftermath of the murder of Otto Warmbier is how nothing is likely to change and people will soon forget. The day he died it was news, then the world moved quickly on.
The Trump administration doesn’t have a lot of good options. The president is unlikely to get China to agree to erase Kim and his cronies from the planet. Yes, Trump can pressure allies, the United Nations and even a few international corporations, but Kim Jong-Un will survive.
But justice won’t come for Otto Warmbier, because nothing short of the direct punishment of his torturers would bring about justice in any measurable sense.
The only comfort for his family is he died a free man, which is not a lot of comfort.
As for the rest of us, we’re too wrapped up in TV shows and our daily lives to care. It’s sad but true. We aren’t going to go to war over the death of one American. Our enemies know this, and it empowers them.
North Korea holds at least a few more Americans; we’re not even sure of the number. Iran has some too. Other despots would love to get their hands on Americans because it allows otherwise-pissant dictators some propaganda at home. If they’re willing to kill an American, what do you think they’ll do to you if you step out of line?
It’s times like this I wish the CIA were anywhere close to the CIA Hollywood would have us believe it is. A Jason Bourne-type hero could at least bring some justice. As it stands, the only measure of justice we can provide is to keep alive the memory of Otto Warmbier.
bump
God rest his soul. :(
It was murder.
And I wish the CIA was the CIA we had back in the 50s.
Someone told me that Otto was walking when he left NorKor but by the time he arrived home he was in a coma. Is that true?
They would have assassinated that fat bastard!!!
What night is “North Korea” on? I’ll watch!
All over a 50 cent propaganda poster. But even some of his peers who were with him question if he even took it.
None the less, something that should have been a slap on the hand became torture and murder. They broke him, then murdered him. That simple.
And may the Eternal Light shine upon him
It sure was murder.
True, but bottom line.....you’re an imbecile to be an American and even be in that country.
That somebody is mistaken. He had been in a coma since April, not just recently.
you’re an imbecile to be an American and even be in that country
It doesn’t excuse the murder, but you are right about being an imbecile to go there.
poor kid
obviously was a spook or spook in training and got caught
If you have any sense, there are certain places you just don’t go:
North Korea
Iran
Yemen
“Trashcanistan” (any former Soviet Central Asian Republic)
42nd & Post Rd.
If I go to 42nd & Post alone at midnight on Friday night, I can reasonably expect a high probability of being killed. Same as going to North Korea. No, it doesn’t excuse the murderers from being murderers. But that’s why you just don’t go there.
I believe the phrase after Hitler was “never again”. Well, “again” has been going on for a good long time in NORK.
Just saw Seb Gorka on FOX (I was flipping channels & heard he’d be up next & he’s one person I try to catch). Martha asked him what the Trump admin plans to do after Otto’s death at the hands of the NORKs. Gorka said that unlike the Obama admin, they do not disclose their plans, show their hand. Trump is unconventional & he’s not a wuss like Obama - something WILL happen to the NORKs as retribution for Otto. What, where, how & when - we’ll probably find out when the NORKs do & the ‘something’ that happens to them may not be something the USA will take credit for publicly, but the NORKs will ‘know’ who is responsible.
Any inner-city anywhere in the US, anytime of the day or night.
I would also be very careful about selecting any destination south of the Rio Grande.
The same with Africa. I wouldn’t say “don’t go to Africa” but I would be very careful about selecting destinations and travel circumstances, such as joining a group rather than wandering around alone.
Sadly you are correct.
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