Photo by Jonathan Alcorn for The New York Times

Just a few hours ago, a white, unmarked plane carrying former US President Bill Clinton and two American journalists Laura Ling, 32, and Euna Lee, 36, touched down in an airport near Los Angeles, back from North Korea, where the two women were detained since March.

I spent the last hour watching videos and reading articles on the web about how Clinton went to North Korea on a mission to bring back the two journalist from captivity. The web is full of stories, analysis and photos of what unfolded in the last 24 hours. There’s no need to repeat any of that here.

Personally, I was moved by the scenes of the two women embracing their families, especially Euna Lee, who has a little daughter aged 4.

Photo by Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times

But this story also portrays a moment that shows some of the elements which make America such an amazing nation.

Look at the two women. If you’d see them in the streets of Amman you’d probably think they are Chinese or Korean. Yet here is a nation that has embraced all races under a common constitution, while other nations around the world still massacre each other, based on religious and racial difference. These two women, with their Asian names, and Asian looks, as American citizens , got rescued by the Anglo-Saxon Mr Clinton. Not to forget that this happened in the year where a black man who’s middle name is Hussein became the President of the US.

You might be interested to know, that the two journalist where shooting a documentary about refugees on the Chinese-North Korean border when they got detained by North Korean border guards. They happen to work for Current TV, a media company co-founded by former US Vice President (and “almost” President) Al Gore. And here’s another American lesson. Because of democracy and the fact that presidents are limited to two 4 year terms, America has former presidents and vice presidents who are young and energetic enough to do useful things, like start innovative media companies, win Oscars for environmental movies and do emergency diplomacy. Even when they are really old they continued to do useful things. Just look at Jimmy Carter’s involvement in Palestine and elsewhere. In contrast, Arab world (and other “developing nations”) presidents have to dye their hair black and insist on “serving” their stagnant countries for ever and ever and never give the chance to a younger generation to take over.

The 3rd lesson is team work. This mission needed the cooperation of countless people, but chief among them: Mr Gore, Mr Clinton, Mrs Clinton and President Obama. Mr Gore and Mr Clinton had a fight 8 years ago when Gore lost to Bush, because Gore was angry that Clinton did not help him enough when the courts decided the winner of that screwed-up election. Mrs Clinton was the bitter rival of Obama in the democratic party. Mrs Clinton and Mr Clinton had problems when Mr Clinton had the affair with Lewinsky.

But here they are, all working as a team to secure the release of the two journalists.

As a finale for all of this, ponder how the North Koreans handled the situation:

1. They arrested two women journalists because of allegedly trespassing into their country and sentenced them to 12 years in prison with hard labour.
2. They were sending back-channel signals that they want a big “wasta” to come to them to negotiate the freedom of the two women. The North Korean leader seems to have been desperate for a photo opportunity with Clinton. See below.
3. State media in North Korea reported that Mr. Kim hosted a dinner for Mr. Clinton, and the two held a “wide-ranging exchange of views on matters of common concern”. It said Mr. Clinton had “courteously” conveyed a message to Mr. Kim from U.S. President Barack Obama. Now this sounds to me exactly like Arab state run news agency news.

WOW

Getty Images, published on NPR

Read these related posts on 360east:

• Is Obama a Mac and Clinton a PC?
• Columbia Journalism Review mentions Toot and Ikbis
• 1980’s revisited: Wonderful Life
• What should America do on/with Arab TV?
• Shirin Ebadi at the Global Media Forum: Beware of the warmongers and monopolists