Lost Cowboy<\/p>\n
Otto Warmbier has become a household name. He was Salutatorian of his high school class at Wyoming High School in Cincinnati, a junior at the University of Virginia, and an exchange student at the London School of Economics. He was a strong student and he was involved in everything. He was \u201cthe best and the brightest\u201d that the suburban community of Wyoming, Ohio had to offer; a town and school that prides itself on high academic and professional achievement.<\/p>\n
Like a lot of young people, Otto wanted to travel the world. One of the places he chose to visit was North Korea, the \u201cforbidden\u201d country. The advertisement for the trip said; \u201cthis is the trip your parents don\u2019t want you to take!\u201d He went, and perhaps he made a mistake. His confession to stealing a propaganda poster can\u2019t be reliable in a country that daily coerces and tortures its own population. The video \u201cevidence\u201d is pretty blurry. But even if he did steal the poster, the sentence of fifteen years hard labor was directed more at the United States then to this particular youth.<\/p>\n
Sometime soon after his sentencing, Otto was damaged beyond repair. His brain was deprived of oxygen, and he lapsed into a \u201cvegetative state.\u201d After a year, they bundled his destroyed mind and body onto a plane, and sent him home to die.<\/p>\n
As a graduate of Wyoming High School myself, I feel the loss of Otto Warmbier more keenly. I didn\u2019t know him or his parents, but to see them in familiar buildings and streets, to share the experiences and traditions of Wyoming with them, makes his loss more intimate. I mourn for him, and I can\u2019t imagine the pain his parents are in.<\/p>\n
To the North Koreans, Otto was a symbol, a pawn in their great game of Russian roulette with the rest of the world. Just like intercontinental ballistic missiles and nuclear bombs, Otto was another finger in the eye of the United States: you can\u2019t stop our missiles and bombs, and you can\u2019t protect your people either. And they were right, we couldn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
So what happens next?<\/p>\n
The North Koreans used him and threw him away. His is but one life, and I suspect both he and his parents would not want a nuclear war fought over his fate. But it is up to the United States, even with the dysfunctional government we have now, to find some appropriate means of responding to his death. It is clear that North Korea will continue to challenge the world, to put greater provocations in play, until the United States and the world react.<\/p>\n
If there is to be any value in the loss of Otto Warmbier, let it be that we begin a world process to push North Korea back into an acceptable path. Obviously the threat and bluster of Naval Carrier Groups (real or imagined), hidden nuclear submarines and B-1 Bomber over-flights isn\u2019t solving the problem. It will take world action, particularly involving China, and world leadership.<\/p>\n
That would be something new and different for the current administration, but something that they must find a way to achieve. That should be the legacy of this one lost Cowboy.<\/p>\n
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