While Warmbier’s treatment and eventual death is beyond tragic, it sparks the need for serous debate on why Americans travel -unprotected – to several rogue states across the globe.
Today, Otto Warmbier’s family received the devastating news that their son had died due to extensive brain damage suffered at the hands of the North Korean government. One can only imagine the horror that this young man had to face from his captives. For those who do not remember, Warmbier went to North Korea in January of 2016. While in North Korea, Warmbier attempted to steal a propaganda poster from a hotel and was caught. For this minor offense, he was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor. On June 13th, the North Korean government allowed him to come home, although he was already in a coma from the injuries sustained.
What happened to this 22-year-old and his family is beyond words. The actions of the North Korean regime are criminal, and they should be brought to justice for their actions. While I feel for the Warmbier family, that is not the point of this article. I hope to use this piece as a teachable moment to possibly help others from following down this same road.
Otto is not the first American to be unlawfully detained and tortured. In fact, this seems to happen with some regularity. Look at Jason Rezaian, for example—the American citizen of Iranian descent who would find himself living in that country while writing for the Washington Post. That is, until he was arrested in July of 2014 and held for 18 months, all the while subjected to mental and physical abuse. He had false confessions extracted from himself and his wife through intimidation and death threats.
There is also Alan Gross, who was arrested in Cuba in 2009 for setting up internet communication while he was a subcontractor for the US government. He would end up spending a total of five years in prison. Then there are Sarah Shourd, Shane Bauer, and Joshua Fattal, three UC Berkley graduates who, while hiking in the northern part of Iraq, wandered into Iran and were arrested for espionage. They were arrested in July 2009 and did not make it back to the United States until September 2011. We can also talk about Aijalon Gomes, an American teaching English in South Korea. He accidentally wandered into North Korea while visiting China in January 2010. Six months later, he was hospitalized after trying to commit suicide. He was allowed to return to the US in August 2010. The list keeps going.
Here is where I am completely and totally confused. Why would anyone want to risk going to these countries? China, Russia, Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq, Cuba, North Korea, etc. I understand the desire to see other cultures and experience new lands. I understand the call of adventure and the thrill of discovery. Yet these are countries where there are no constitutional protections.
My years in the Army and multiple deployments left me with an immense respect for the Constitution and freedoms. It is my respect for these rights that spurs me to write for OpsLens. It instilled in me something else too—the horror of totalitarian regimes. This guaranteed that I would never want to go to any of those countries. At least not without a combat infantry brigade backing me up.
Maybe it is the liberal mindset to blame here—the belief that these countries aren’t really that bad. It really is all America’s fault anyway, and if we just show them love, then they will see that we too hate America. Maybe it is the fallacy of youth that the young are immortal—immortal until faced with true danger, that is. Or possibly it is the coddling that our children seem to get these days. That combined with a total lack of personal responsibility could certainly explain much of the ignorance.
While I believe that the unjust detention of any American is an act of war and should be handled as such, at some point we have to start asking why these people are putting themselves into these positions. Please do not take this as me blaming the victim. That is not what I am trying to get across. What I am saying is that having the situational awareness not to be put into these situations in the first place is a million times more prudent that trying to get yourself out of them.
It is time that we start living in reality. Not the reality that this country affords to us, but the reality of a world that tends to be hard and without remorse. It always blows my mind when American (liberals) start talking about the good work that Fidel Castro did for his people. I mean sure, he had rampant firing squads, political prisoners, labor camps, religious oppression, and children murdered. But come on, look at their healthcare.
This is the world where we see so many people living. They are so used to an environment where the government has constitutional restrictions and personal safeguards that they don’t seem capable of realizing we are more of an anomaly than we are the norm. In their minds, the stories that they hear about these monsters simply can’t be real. No one that bad can really get into power. Even if they did, they certainly wouldn’t be able to keep the power. If only that were true.
I recently heard a report on the North Korea leader, Kim Jong-un. He had a meeting with his top generals to discuss a problem with their rocket launch systems and the failures they were having. Reportedly, many of these generals were terrified that they were about to be executed. Yet these are the same men who control the military. If anyone should be afraid, it should be Kim Jong-un.
There is a great line from the HBO series Game of Thrones. In it, one of the characters, Varys, states a riddle. It goes, “Three great men sit in a room: a king, a priest, and the rich man. Between them stands a common sellsword. Each great man bids the sellsword kill the other two. Who lives? Who dies?” The answer to this riddle is that power does not really exist as a tangible thing. In fact, it is fluid and exists only where we, individuals, place it. This allows tyrants to exist and flourish, just as long as they can keep their people convinced that the power rests with them. Again, this is something that is hard for Americans to really understand, since our constitution ultimately places power into the hands of the people. After all, our government derives its power from the people and only serves at our pleasure.
Once we come to terms with the truth about the world at large, we can accept that there are simply places we should not go—at least not if we want to survive the experience. Again, I do not hold anything against any American who has found themselves to be unjustly held and subjected to all manner of torture. What I do think is that people need to hear their stories and listen to the suffering that they and their loved ones have endured. Once they do that, then they can make the decision to visit these countries. Then they can decide if the risk to their lives is truly worth the reward.
