Propaganda Management 101
I was trying to figure out what it was that bothered me about this picture. Bill and all the other hostages look suitably glum, as anyone forced to pose for propaganda shots should. Then I realized what was missing.
They probably didn’t teach anything like that at Yale or Oxford. Thank you, USS Pueblo crew, for remedial instruction in how Americans behave when compelled to engage in propaganda exercises for the benefit of North Korean hostage takers.
Hang on, back to the top. What’s 2nd from the right doing? Nah …
Anyway, Krauthammer got it about right. via NRO:
Well, it’s the return of hostages in exchange for stuff. And we will learn about that stuff. It’s clear that this was wired in advance.
There probably was an apology [offered by President Clinton in Pyongyang]. After all, the secretary of state, the president’s wife, had said openly, as we saw earlier, that we were sorry about the incident, and we were asking for amnesty, which was implying the legitimacy of the arrest and the trial. So we have already issued an apology.Secondly, it is obvious that he was an envoy of the Obama administration, despite our denials. This is the one time in history in which the official news station of the North Koreans told the truth, but it does happen once every 50 years.
…
And it’s a demonstration of direct negotiations with the United States, which is what Pyongyang has always demanded. So…it got a lot.
And it probably has gotten stuff that we haven’t even heard about and we may never hear about — aid in food and oil. All of that stuff will happen quietly in the future.
But it was a hostage ransom. No question at all.
And not so much as a bird flipped in the bargain. Maybe next time. So, which former president does Ahmadinejad get his picture with? The mullahs are holding three ex-presidential visit vouchers. No Gore employees, though.
Here’s a lefty who can’t believe anyone would find fault with an ex-president kowtowing to a commie dictator in exchange for hostages. The charmingly misnomered Think Progress. Maybe he’s right. George Bush did it in April 2001, after the post-commie kleptocrat dictators of the PRC forced down one of our airplanes and held 24 Navy aviators hostage until the American president agreed to abase himself. And we’re supposed to be on good terms with that crowd. I dunno, I thought it was a bad idea then, and I think so now.
Anyway, like I said, you’re up, A’jad.
Topics: America, Clintons, Kim, North Korea, courage, dummkopf!, military
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 12:59 am on Thursday, August 6, 2009
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