May 25, 2010, - 1:03 pm

Stupid American Tourists & the State Dept That Loves Them

By Debbie Schlussel

I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of Americans assuming the risk in traveling to foreign lands that hate us, then exhausting U.S. foreign policy resources and bargaining chips to get out, once they are kidnapped or imprisoned.  It doesn’t matter whether they are tourists, left-wing journalists, or a combination thereof (in one case).

sarahshourdshanebauerjoshfattal

Sarah Shourd, Shane Bauer, Josh Fattal:

Left-Wing Activist “Journalists” Detained “Hiking” near Iran

lauralisaling

Lisa & Laura Ling: Wasted American Resources on Laura’s Jaunt to N. Korea, Now Hailed As Heroes. For What?

This week, we have a confluence of three such stories.  And the gushing and drooling over each of these groups–kidnapped American “tourists” in Yemen, imprisoned American far-left anti-Israel “journalists” hiking in Iran, and Laura Ling fresh from her North Korean prison stay–is annoying.  (I said the same about suspicious “journalist” Roxana Saberi, a sometime employee of the Ayatollahs and usually an Iran apologist.)

First, there is the latest such saga.  Gunmen kidnapped two American tourists in Yemen.  They’ve apparently just been released.  But who goes “touring” in Yemen?  Did they not hear about this dude named Anwar Al-Awlaki, who is behind many recent Islamic terrorist attacks and attempted attacks on U.S. soil.  His call to kill Americans might be a hint:  Don’t. Go. To. Yemen.  Dummies.  These people are idiots.  And I bet they’re either Muslims, themselves, or really, really delusional left-wingers who still see world-class armpits like Yemen as “exotic” locales for touring, and still romanticize Islam (while they hate all other religions except Buddhism).  “Oh, look, Amber.  Check out those charming headscarves.  How quaint. Ditto for that ornate beheading knife, which I’m sure is only used on sheep.”

Now, these two are being held as ransom for the release of a jailed man in a Yemen prison, who will probably get released.  Again, what American goes “touring” in Yemen, these days (or ever)?  Only complete morons or Muslims seeking the latest in combustible explosive underwear technology.  Predictably, the U.S. State Department and American Embassy in Sana’a Yemen were all over it, wasting a ton of time and energy on these stupid people.

I’m all for natural self-selection:  if you’re dumb enough to go “touring” in Yemen, Iran, North Korea, or some other such utopia of dreck, you deserve to rot there.  We know what these places are like.  You go at your own risk.

Then, there are Shane Bauer, Sarah Shourd, and Josh Fattal–the three faux-journalists stuck in jail in Iran.  As I’ve previously written, the three are really pan-Islamist, anti-Israel far-lefties living in Damascus, Syria.  One of them, Fattal, is supposedly Jewish.  What kind of dumbass Jew from America goes hiking in Iran?  Only an imbecile-owitz.  The only Jews who go there and get to leave alive are the anti-Israel rabbis from the Neturei Karta who are bankrolled by Ahmadinejad.  Maybe he wanted to be like them.

Fattal and the other two knew better.  If they’re living in the torturistan of the Assads (Syria), they knew full well not to go “hiking” in Iran.  But they did anyway.  I’ve already said it about these three:  Let ‘Em Rot.  But, no.  Now, Iran and the mothers of these three Islamo-pandering stooges are pushing a “prisoner exchange deal” with the U.S.  The Sarkozy idiots in France just did one, last week, releasing an Iranian arms dealer and refusing to extradite him to the U.S. for his criminal nuclear parts purchases (on behalf of Iran), in exchange for some far left French academic who went to Iran (another “tourist” who should have been left to rot there).  So the Al-Pavlov’s dogs of the Ahmadinejad administration and his Ayatollah backers are hungry for more.  They have a taste for more of this blood.

And finally, there are Laura Ling and her sister, Lisa Ling.  They’ve written a book about Laura Ling’s imprisonment in North Korea while there for Al Gore’s cable network.  Who told her to go there?  If you go to Kim Jong-Il’s antithesis of Wonka World, you know what to expect.  You’re gonna be imprisoned and tortured.  And, as I said at the time, she should have rotted there.  She chose to go.  But, instead of saying:  you went at your own risk and you knew the consequences, so there’s nothing we can do, the U.S. did biz with Kim.  Bill Clinton was interrupted from his position as Chief Justice of the Hawaiian Tropic bikini contest to negotiate and rescue these two faux-heroines (Ling was in North Korea with fellow Al Gore employee Euna Lee).  Now Laura and Lisa Ling’s book is all the rage on Oprah (for whom Lisa Ling reports regular propaganda), People Magazine, and everywhere else.

My favorite headline is the People Magazine blare:  “ESCAPE FROM NORTH KOREA.”  Um, here’s a tip, People:  no one escaped.  The U.S. State Department and Bill Clinton repeatedly cajoled and posed to get these two spoiled, whiny women out of North Korea.

And that’s the problem with all of these selfish, “selfless” (but not really), self-appointed heroes and heroines who risk American lives, capital, and foreign policy resources to go to these G-d-forsaken places.  The only word here is “self.”  They really don’t care about anyone else.  And our country pays the price.

I care far more about the many people who are in these countries–Iran, North Korea, etc.–against their will, the people who didn’t have the freedom to enter these despotic holes voluntarily. They are the ones we should be helping, not these spoiled, overgrown children who don’t give a damn about you, but expect you to care the world about them.

It would be one thing if these dumb American jaunts and prison stays would keep the State Department away from its consistently boggled, hate-America foreign policy.  Sadly, on the contrary, “negotiating” and–really–trading with these despotic regimes always makes U.S. foreign policy worse.  Americans, victims of terrorists (as the terrorists are now often exchanged in prisoner trades), America’s policy in the Middle East, etc.–those are always the victims of these selfish “tourists” and “journalists.”

No one made them go there.  They went freely and of their own volition and accord.  Now, it’s their problem.  It shouldn’t be ours.

For the gazillionth time:  Let. Them. Rot.




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27 Responses

Absolutely. These idiots should be left to rot if they willingly go to these anti-American hellholes.

DS_ROCKS! on May 25, 2010 at 1:12 pm

Count me in. The entire Middle East and any Muslim country outside that area is to be avoided. Sadly, in 20 years or so this will include Europe. And then after that, America will be Muslim. I guess if we don’t wake up, there won’t be too many places we’ll be able to go. Soon, all tourist attractions will be “haraam” and we’ll offend Muslims simply by parking in view of the Grand Canyon or one of the Great Lakes.

CAIR will get involved everytime someone offends a Muslim because they took pictures of the, (hopefully) newly built Freedom Towers that block the sun from the Mohammed Atta Memorial Mosque at New York’s Ground Zero.

John on May 25, 2010 at 1:17 pm

Once again, spot on. It’s sickening to watch these morons parade themselves as victims. Rot they should.

samurai on May 25, 2010 at 1:23 pm

Debbie,

I completely agree with you. I was so disgusted when the Clintons helped Laura Ling get out of N. Korea. They could have used those favors to create a better world for everyone.

And then her illegal activity was rewarded by getting to ride on a private plan with Clinton.

Angie on May 25, 2010 at 1:31 pm

It is HIGH TIME for personal responsibility.

That related to muzzie doctors, too. I prefer to die on my own than to let a muzzie doctor kill me.

goldenmike4393 on May 25, 2010 at 1:33 pm

What else do you expect from a TV network run by king of the global carbon razes Al Gore??!?!?!

Bob Porrazzo on May 25, 2010 at 1:41 pm

I’m tired of it as well. And usually these idiots, like Laura Ling and Euna Lee, lie through their teeth about the circumstances of their capture, claiming that they didn’t cross prohibited borders, etc. I have little sympathy for these loads, and they deserve zero taxpayer funded assistance. As usual, the parasitic anchors in life, get all of the attention, assistance, and accolades; while the quiet average person who goes to work everyday, pays their mortgage, provides for their family, and stays out of prison, gets the hose.

Ace on May 25, 2010 at 2:08 pm

Amazing! I think you will find complete agreement among all the comments!

Tom on May 25, 2010 at 2:10 pm

I agree entirely — let them rot in jail. I wasn’t aware that the 3 Americans were living in Syria?!! What kind of goofs are these people? Now I’m wondering if they weren’t spies (as the Iranians allege)…

J.S. on May 25, 2010 at 2:12 pm

Too bad these morons weren’t left to rot and given Darwin Awards for their efforts to improve the gene pool.

Jarhead on May 25, 2010 at 2:21 pm

I don’t believe them for a minute when they say that they did not know they crossed over the border to N. Korea. Everyone knows N. Korea’s reputation, if you were even near the border you should know exactly where it is.

Angie on May 25, 2010 at 2:37 pm

Agreed, Debbie. Any one dumb enough to go on vacation to a despotic land deserve what they get. And I’m not wasting my tears on them. Save it for those who need them.

NormanF on May 25, 2010 at 3:15 pm

These useful idiots get to come home unlike the thousands or tens of thousands POWs in Indochina and Korea.

soyphobia on May 25, 2010 at 3:26 pm

The same people who waste so much time and energy on those idiots are the same people who can’t be stirred to help people trapped in those oppressive Third World hellholes and who would like to get out if they could. That doesn’t interest them in the slightest. And the concern for Western lefties rotting there is both ethnocentric and racist. The irony of it gets lost on their clueless fan contingent in the West.

NormanF on May 25, 2010 at 5:27 pm

I was just thinking the same thing, DS. My wife and I were talking about where to go on vacation this summer- Tahoe, Saratoga Springs for the races, perhaps Newport. No No I said, Lets go hiking in Yemen. Great idea honey- So exotic-
Oh well

Rick B- on May 25, 2010 at 5:56 pm

Another excellent post, Debbie.

I agree that American who wonders into places like Iran, Yemen, North Korea, etc. goes at their own risk–useful idiot or not–and we shouldn’t worry about them if they get kidnapped.

JeffE on May 25, 2010 at 9:00 pm

Is that armpit hair??? I don’t think so. So what is it???

The Other Mike on May 25, 2010 at 9:24 pm

Debbie you hit out of the park again. The MSM gushes over these horse faced sisters. Laura Ling should have rotted on beetles and crabgrass. They put our security at risk because they think the world is their playground. It plays for HOprah and the drones.

I don’t know who is more annoying and self serving, Lisa Ling or Anderson Cooper.

CaliforniaScreaming on May 26, 2010 at 3:12 am

Great article. It is time someone wrote about these people. They don’t just pop up in these anti-American countries by accident.

Little Al on May 26, 2010 at 3:20 am

And part of it is just the narcissism of man people in the US today, especially, but not only, young people. How many of us know people who go on trips to mainland China just because it’s ‘cool’, or because of the “culture” (ironic because most of them are cultural Philistines)? Or travel to Cuba to show they can do it?

Of course with the left-wingers now in power (not that Bush was that different), we are pandering to all of these depraved countries, so we sympathize with the young nitwits who visit them, and negotiate with the sickos running these countries, as equals.

Little Al on May 26, 2010 at 6:14 am

Stupid people traveling to evil lands, then wonder why they’re being sujected to evil.

Truth on May 26, 2010 at 12:07 pm

Debbie, thank you for voicing what I believe Americans are really thinking. These people are most definitely stupid, selfish egoists. Unfortunately our government, starting from the top down, is not any better. I’d rather see our resources used to free Jonathan Pollard, a man who is being left to rot in jail simply because he is Jewish.

Naomi on May 27, 2010 at 8:00 am

This is actually sickening. Do yourselves a favor and read the comments on Current to this article, where it was reposted.

http://current.com/entertainment/comedy/92454231_stupid-american-tourists-the-state-dept-that-loves-them.htm#comments

oh my god... on May 27, 2010 at 12:08 pm

Here is a thought… Maybe… just maybe some of these people really were spies! Yeah… it’s humorous to paint them as self loathing Jewish lefties or naive lefty journalists but you yourself would be naive to think that these people couldn’t be agents of our government’s covert intelligence gathering programs.

Cris on May 28, 2010 at 2:46 pm

A cold, ignorant and horrible diatribe from yet another attention seeking moron. Assuming you had parents, your’s must be proud. Learn about these human beings before you spew your jingoistic stupidity.
Love does exist in this world. Check it out, it might make you a better person.

jose on September 18, 2010 at 2:19 pm

Debbie, right on with the articles, and of all the conservative outlets I was reading,this is far unbiased than many of all. Correct and true, the ling/Lee duo went to North Korea by crossing the Sino-korean border for a reporting there regarding human trafficking. That was ok until they knowingly crossed the dreaded border of that nation and the consequences began to wake up the international community. Were they forced to go to North Korea, did they suffer coercion of any kind? no, they did not. They went at their very own risks. And in the end, Bill Clinton and Al Gore went to rescue them because they were so VIP and that shows us that being an American or any “important” foreigner won’t get you in red trouble. The wrong lesson.

erick d. on September 28, 2010 at 7:19 pm

Perfect…. now with the three held in Iran we find they are all American-hating morons who truly despise this country.

They should be fined the costs of diplomatic actions on their behalf.

Shane Bauer was educated in Berkley and has nothing but vomit on his site, trashing the USA yet he was quick to take our help.

HIS PARENTS SHOULD HAVE ABORTED HIS ASS….but I suspect his parents are no different than he is.

Eric on September 24, 2011 at 6:00 pm

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