This Thing is Like That Thing: White People are Burdonsome Edition
Left: Senator Jim Webb traveled to Myanmar and secured the release of John Yettaw, the American who, uninvited, swam across to activist detainee Aung San Suu Ky’s residence. The act resulted in Suu Ky being charged with breaking the rules of her house arrest even though she had no way to stop him. She was sentenced to more house arrest. Tettaw had been sentenced to several years of hard labor. But has now been rescued.
Right: Former President Clinton traveled to North Korea to secure the release of two Current TV journalist arested for illegally crossing the border. They had been sentenced to years of hard labor.
In both cases, you have Americans overseaes in dangerous places naively mucking about and then needing rescue by our hero officials. But the collateral damage of their behavior is not repaired. It is very likely that the journalists in North Korea helped officials there to discover North Korean nationals who were working on smuggling people out to China. (Despite all the fawning nterviews of the two journalists, the white cameraman who was accompanying them, Mitch Koss, and who escaped the arrest, curiously will not talk on despite being a veteran news producer for CNN, ABC News and PBS,.) Meanwhile, Kim Seong-cheol, the ethnic-Korean Chinese guide assisting the three Americans, was picked up by Chinese authorities. His fate is unknown.