May 9, 2018

"President Trump declared a diplomatic victory on Wednesday by announcing that North Korea had freed three American prisoners..."

"... removing a bitter and emotional obstacle ahead of a planned meeting between him and the young leader of the nuclear-armed nation. The release of the three prisoners, all American citizens of Korean descent, was in some ways the most tangible gesture of sincerity shown by North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, to improve relations with the United States after nearly seven decades of mutual antagonism."

From "3 Americans Are Released From North Korea, Trump Says" (NYT).

78 comments:

Unknown said...

I am sure the press will tell us what a mistake this was, and at the same time credit Obama.

David Begley said...

More winning by the winner Trump.

Hillary's response, "What happened?"

AlbertAnonymous said...

Obama’s policy of “strategic patience” finally paid off. Give that man another Nobel.

I guess if you are patient enough to wait forever, someone else comes along and actually makes it happen. Jackass.

Henry said...

.. the most tangible gesture of sincerity shown by North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, to improve relations with the United States...

Ah. We're seeing the Gorbacheving of Kim Jong-un. As has happened before, credit will not go to the U.S. President, but to historic inevitability and the great reformer on the other side.

LincolnTf said...

Another triumph for Trump foreign policy. Bitter Libs are seething right now, wishing as hard as they can that these men were still in a North Korean prison camp.

Henry said...

In truth, there is a great deal of historic inevitability about such things -- not because they aren't evitable, but because the conditions and cause are too multifarious to control.

bleh said...

Not “declared.” Scored.

Rusty said...

Yes Henry. It was inevitable. All it needed was a catalyst. Trump is the catalyst.

Birkel said...

The victory was for the men no longer dying cruelly.

Michael K said...
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Michael K said...

The family of the young man who died must be bitter that Trump was not elected sooner.

MikeR said...

"Donald Trump declared/achieved a diplomatic victory"

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Maybe ending the Korean War officially after 68 years had something to do with bringing this about.

Brian said...

#goldenage

Jersey Fled said...

Kind of reminds me of how Obama got cop killer Joanne Chisimard returned from Cuba as a condition of U.S. opening relations.

Wait .. he didn't ?

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

Trump saved the world from harmony... again.

Sebastian said...

Waiting for one of the commentators to explain why a win is really a loss, and why we need to make just a few more concessions to our enemies, sorry: adversaries, to start winning for real.

Hagar said...

The most convincing proof of real progress would be opening the border between the two Koreas. Not necessarily a wildass circus like we have on our southern border, but just some normalization would be a very welcome sight.

chickelit said...

“I just hate to see a guy like Trump succeed.” ~ random up-Chucked thought.

DanTheMan said...

>>Waiting for one of the commentators to explain why a win is really a loss

They are all waiting for Trump's Apology Tour.
Maybe after he's impeached, jailed, and executed for paying Stormy Daniels?

Fabi said...

I hope this story doesn't leak to the MSM!

Jersey Fled said...

Trump will personally meet the three released Americans at 2:00 AM when they land at Edwards AFB.

What a moron this guy is.

Fabi said...

Trump to welcome them home at the airport -- at two in the morning. More people are starting to notice and appreciate his better qualities and to disregard his bombast.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Obama and Kerry couldn't do it. Not that they ever cared.

Drago said...

Whoa.

LLR Chuck is NOT going to like this. Not one bit.

Drago said...

Sebastian: "Waiting for one of the commentators to explain why a win is really a loss, and why we need to make just a few more concessions to our enemies, sorry: adversaries, to start winning for real"

As we speak the lefties and their strong LLR operational allies are pooling their talking points.

Jersey Fled said...

"What a moron this guy is"

Just in case someone doesn't get my wierd sense of humor, this was meant to be sarcastic.

Fabi said...

I wish I'd have been that dry, Jersey -- well played.

Jersey Fled said...

I'm having a harder and harder time looking at Trump and not seeing Columbo.

DanTheMan said...
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DanTheMan said...

>I'm having a harder and harder time looking at Trump and not seeing Columbo

This could be bad news for Albanians.



Sorry... obscure Tune in Tomorrow reference...

Infinite Monkeys said...

He said he had been arrested in October 2015 while meeting with a former North Korean soldier to receive classified data.

I'm afraid to think about what probably happened to that former NK soldier.

Original Mike said...

Obama wouldn’t have even tried.

Drago said...

Hmmmmm, the Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee have suddenly, and I mean suddenly, become quite concerned about federal agencies retaining and delivering tapes/equipment to the Congress for oversight purposes.

These tapes were not even under subpoena at the time.

Considering the position and actions of LLR Chuck's democrat allies over the last 30 years it would be hard to come up with a topic that is more laughable and hypocritical than this one.

Drago said...

Uh oh. Diane Feinstein delivered a marvelous performance in lying about Haspel.

I can't wait to see how LLR Chuck defends Feinstein and blames Trump for that.

Let's all pay close attention.

SayAahh said...
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Freder Frederson said...

Obama and Kerry couldn't do it. Not that they ever cared.

Well, considering two of the three have only been held since Trump came to office, you are setting a pretty high bar.

SayAahh said...

June 2014. Pres. Obama cuts a deal and releases 5 Taliban commanders for Bowe Bergdahl.
Never forget.

Vance said...

Asking Obama and Kerry to care about US citizens imprisoned by Communist regimes is a high bar?

I suppose that's true. No one ever thought Obama cared, so if he actually had done something... it would have surprised even Freder.

Obama was far more likely to send some US citizens to NK precisely to be held hostage to harm the US than the other way around, and we all know it.

Drago said...

Field Marshall Freder: "Well, considering two of the three have only been held since Trump came to office, you are setting a pretty high bar."

The obama/Kerry "couldn't do it" refer to Americans being held in Iran as well as US citizen terrorists that are being given sanctuary in Cuba.

Thanks for your insightful observations.

You never disappoint.

Perhaps while obama was doing "the wave" with murderer Raul Castro at a baseball game obama could have mentioned that.

LOL

Fat chance, huh?

Freder Frederson said...
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Drago said...
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Freder Frederson said...

And of course, claiming that Trump has achieved something Obama couldn't or didn't care about is just bullshit. By Wikipedia's count 13 Foreigners were detained during the Obama administration by North Korea, all but two were released during that administration, most spending less time detained than the two who were originally detained during Trump's term.

Drago said...

Tom Cotten had a really effective line of questioning for Gina Haspel which took the dems to task and put on vivid display their hypocrisy.

#StrongDurbinDefender Chuck must have hated, HATED, that.

LOL

Drago said...

Poor Freder.

He's in a tough position having to defend obama's clear anti-american foreign policy decisions without the support of LLR Chuck who has yet to make an appearance today.

Good luck Freder! You are really fooling lots of folks.......not.....

Drago said...

You know what might have made more democrats/lefties/LLR's support Trump's efforts with NK?

Apparently, it's literally giving pallets and pallets and pallets of hard currency to Kim Jong Un.

Trumpit said...
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Trumpit said...

I believe Trump will kill us all. He doesn't understand the fire he is playing with. He has all the tact of a bull in a china shop. "These are the stakes. To make a world in which all of God's children can live, or to go into the dark. We must either love each other, or we must die."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daisy_(advertisement)

Fabi said...

Drago isn't tired of all this winning yet, either.

Drago said...

Trumpit: "I believe Trump will kill us all."

You've clearly already forgotten your previous comments where you indicated that Trump has already killed us all. Several times over.

LOL

Congratulations on being one of the most self-refuting lefty posters on these boards.

Birkel said...

I feel like Trumpit is just phoning the Moby in.

Quaestor said...

... you are setting a pretty high bar.

I never imagined Rotwang's Cabana Boy would favor lowering standards for Lord Zero. That's very disrespectful of the Greatest American President, is it not?

Bay Area Guy said...

This is good news, of course. The men -- long ignored - must be breathing a sigh of relief along with their families. And Trump deserves the credit.

On the larger picture, it's been nearly 30 years since the Berlin Wall fell. Modern day folks, particularly leftists, are lost in trivial, imaginary problems, and have forgotten the lessons of the Cold War.

North Korea is an evil relic from the Cold War. More than half the globe was like North Korea, and growing. From 1945 - 1989, our whole foreign policy was based on the nuclear threat posed by the Soviets, their satellite states, and their Commie allies (like China) and enablers (like France and the Western European Left).

Let's not forget the hard-line Cold Warriors who, through their strength and tenacity, created a lot of peace in this world.

Quaestor said...

I believe Trump will kill us all.

Relax, Trumpit, the President will not kill us all. He will, however, kill you. He's in the process of killing you as I write this. He's already flatlined your brain, so you have little time left. I suggest a nice vacation.

Drago said...

BAG: "North Korea is an evil relic from the Cold War."

The Left has officially "forgotten" how they openly supported our enemies in the Cold War and they expect everyone of us to "forget" as well.

Quaestor said...

"These are the stakes. To make a world in which all of God's children can live, or to go into the dark. We must either love each other, or we must die."

How ironic. Trumpit selects the most hypocritical eyewash ever spoken by the most egregious mountebank ever to occupy the White House to impune Trump. Shall we rehash the legacy of LBJ, the escalator of war in Southeast Asia, the author of the dissolution of the African-American nuclear family, the pillager of Social Security, the man who wasted the lives of 55,000 soldiers and Marines and untold billions of our treasure to prosecute an unconstitutional war against an "enemy" whose hostile actions had to be embellished if not wholly falsified in order to justify it? Shall we?

exhelodrvr1 said...

But it was supposed to be a dark and Stormy night!!

rehajm said...

Did someone mention Columbo?

favorite Peter Falk schtick

Quaestor said...

North Korea is an evil relic from the Cold War.

Exactly so. Kim Jong-un, is the grandson of KimIl-sung, Stalin's satrap installed in Pyongyang to facilitate the Soviet Union's territorial ambitions in the Far East, which were hardly different from those policies of Tsar Nicolas II which touched off the Russo-Japanese War. That earlier conflict was largely settled by the United States on terms humiliating to Russia, the first European power defeated militarily by non-whites. Russia's leadership, both Imperial and Bolshevik, wanted revenge on both America and Japan for the affront. Korea's entire history from the end of WWII to this moment has been shaped by that desire for retribution. (I do not doubt Putin, a Russian imperialist of the first order, would dearly love to torpedo any peace deal between North and South.)

Kim owes his position to his ancestors' servile obeisance to Stalin, which undermines his claim of legitimacy in the eyes of South Koreans. Legitimacy and the security of the Kim dynasty is what he wants, and he'll trade his nukes and missiles to get them.

Charlie Currie said...

Federal judge in Hawaii rules they must be returned.

CJinPA said...

Democrats score diplomatic victories.
Republicans "declare" them.

- NYT Stylebook

CJinPA said...

Federal judge in Hawaii rules they must be returned.

Perfect

Michael K said...

Maybe trumpit is trolling everyone with parody. Nobody is that stupid.

AllenS said...

If McCain had been POTUS, he would have personally gone to North Korea, and made the 3 prisoners apologize to the Norks.

langford peel said...

Hey maybe we can bury McCain in North Korea.

Jim at said...

I believe Trump will kill us all.

Somewhere a seagull is missing its cheeseburger.

Bay Area Guy said...

@Quaestor,

Excellent historical analysis.

And, let's not forget how the Korean War started in the first place! Leftist/Soviet spies, Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, stole our nuclear secrets from Los Alamos, which accelerated Stalin's drive to produce a nuke by several years. And once Stalin and the Soviets had the nuclear bomb, they gave the green light to North Korea to invade south, thinking we'd do nothing. Yet, we fought and bled and saved South Korea.

Harry Truman was the last good Democrat.

Drago said...

In other interesting news, the democrats might be allowed to interview a dem-friendly witness re: Haspel nomination

Khalid Sheik Mohammed

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

exhelodrvr1 said...

But it was supposed to be a dark and Stormy night!!

5/9/18, 11:37 AM

It still is at CNN. You think they're going to waste much time on this story when Stormy Daniels' attorney needs to be interviewed for the 10,000th time?

And the NY Times has yet to comment on or apologize for this:


"As the New York Times was bashing Mike Pompeo for being missing in action while President Trump tore up the Iran nuclear deal, it turned out the secretary of state was busy rescuing three Americans who have been held captive in North Korea.

In an apparent jab at the administration, The Times' headline said, "At a Key Moment, Trump's Top Diplomat Is Again Thousands of Miles Away."

The Times' story noted that "Senior State Department officials were momentarily speechless on Tuesday when asked why Mr. Pompeo did not delay his trip by a day to be in Washington during Mr. Trump's Iran deal announcement."


It became clear on Wednesday morning why Pompeo didn't delay his trip to Pyongyang when Trump took to Twitter.

"I am pleased to inform you that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in the air and on his way back from North Korea with the 3 wonderful gentlemen that everyone is looking so forward to meeting. They seem to be in good health," Trump wrote. "Secretary Pompeo and his 'guests' will be landing at Andrews Air Force Base at 2:00 A.M. in the morning. I will be there to greet them. Very exciting!"

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

Michael K said...

Maybe trumpit is trolling everyone with parody. Nobody is that stupid.

5/9/18, 12:22 PM

You haven't spent much time reading Twitter threads or Yahoo News comments, I take it.

The Godfather said...

"Trump says" 3 Americans freed by Norks. "Trump DECLARED a diplomatic victory". Musn't give the TrumpMonster any actual credit for what he accomplishes.

And you know what, I think Trump doesn't really give a shit what the NYT says. I wasn't a Trump supporter, but his refusal to care what the MSM says about him makes me (almost) like him. But he wouldn't give a shit about that "(almost)" either, would he?

The Godfather said...

A polite request to some commenters: Please don't knock John McCain right now. He's dying of brain cancer (my father died of that, and it's not a good way to die). He really was a war hero. In politics he's often been suboptimal, and it's fine to criticize that, but this is not the time.

AllenS said...

My girlfriend died of glioblastoma multiforme (which is a terrible form of brain cancer), and when she was in her next to last, then last days she never was an asshole to anyone. Please understand this fact. A person has a choice, and McCain is not being a war hero by doing what he is doing.

Big Mike said...

Dear Godfather, McCain was a hero a long time ago. That was then; this is now. A dying jerk is still a jerk.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Thank you, we already knew what he declared. It's not like you have to be his duplicate mouthpiece or anything.

AllenS said...

Who in the fuck are you talking to, Pee?

OGWiseman said...

Trump's underlying message: Taking hostages works. Hold them for a while, let them go, and we'll consider it a great favor and talk it up all over the news.

He's hardly the first American President to send this message, but it's sad that he's doing so.

Bad Lieutenant said...

Ogw, your stance may be justified if we see a new rash of hostage-taking.