Typical Bolton.

It's hard listening to Bolton to realise that he feels the freeing of hostages is actually a good thing.

It was one of the best kept secrets in the annals of international diplomacy: clandestine, triumphant and potentially momentous.

The former US president Bill Clinton yesterday travelled to North Korea, the most insular nation on Earth, on a surprise mission to seek the release of two US journalists who were imprisoned in March for straying into North Korea while on assignment in China.

Within hours of a face-to-face meeting with its ruler Kim Jong-il, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, sentenced in June to 12 years hard labour for engaging in "hostile acts", had been granted a special pardon.

I sometimes think that it would kill these morons to say a single nice thing about anything Bill Clinton ever did.

Now, had Bush done this, he would be portrayed as having marched in there and demanded their release and Kim Jong-il would have collapsed into a shivering wreck at the sight of the faux cowboy's machismo. But, when it's Clinton, it's appeasement.

UPDATE:



Cenk Uygur sums up Bolton perfectly.

Jon Bolton is an absolute class A clown. One of the dumbest people in America. Imagine if him and his ilk, the Republicans, Dick Cheney etc, were still in charge? Those two women would still be captive in North Korea. No question about it. No ands ifs or buts. They would have said, "Huh! Diplomacy is weakness. We don't want to show weakness! Let them keep those American women there for twelve years, that'll show them how strong we are."

The Republicans had a really dumb process where they refused to talk to anyone unless they agreed to everything which Bush and his cronies wanted in advance. It was like the death of diplomacy.

When people say change is just a slogan, Clinton's visit to North Korea proves that it's not. For the simple reason that such an action would have been unthinkable under the previous administration.

UPDATE II:



I know Bolton looks at this story and sees "appeasement", but I watch what Laura Ling said and find myself very moved:

"Thirty hours ago, Euna Lee and I were prisoners in North Korea," Ling said, stifling tears. "We feared that at any moment we could be sent to a hard labor camp. And then, suddenly, we were told that we were going to a meeting. . .

"When we walked in through the doors, we saw, standing before us, President Bill Clinton. We were shocked. But we knew instantly, in our hearts, that the nightmare of our lives was finally coming to an end. And now we stand here, home and free."

That must have been quite something...

Tags: Clinton, hostages, North Korea, Bolton