Was Bill Clinton’s North Korea Trip a Big Mistake?

Arguably the best part of today’s press conference with just-landed Laura Ling and Euna Lee is when Ling recounted being told the were being taken to a impromptu meeting, and then walking into a room and seeing Bill Clinton. Wow, right? It’s like every Christmas you’ve ever had rolled into one!

That said, was it a big mistake? Will Bill Clinton now be called upon to rescue every unfairly detained American? To wit: Newsweek‘s Maziar Bahari has been unfairly jailed in Iran after videotaping parts of last month’s sweeping protests. Newsweek.com currently has a long feature about him and an interview with his wife Paola Gourley who is six months pregnant with their first child and hasn’t had any contact with him since June. How soon till someone starts asking when Bill will be jetting off to Iran to pull Bahari out? And if he doesn’t (and in all likelihood he won’t be) what will be the explanation? This is a tricky precedent the government has just set by allowing a former president to directly involve himself in this type of negotiation. Perhaps even a dangerous one according to former UN Ambassador John Bolton, who addressed the potential pitfalls of Clinton’s trip in yesterday’s Washington Post.

While the United States is properly concerned whenever its citizens are abused or held hostage, efforts to protect them should not create potentially greater risks for other Americans in the future. Yet that is exactly the consequence of visits by former presidents or other dignitaries as a form of political ransom to obtain their release. Iran and other autocracies are presumably closely watching the scenario in North Korea. With three American hikers freshly in Tehran’s captivity, will Clinton be packing his bags again for another act of obeisance? And, looking ahead, what American hostages will not be sufficiently important to merit the presidential treatment? What about Roxana Saberi and other Americans previously held in Tehran? What was it about them that made them unworthy of a presidential visit?

Good questions. And ones that are likely going to be asked more frequently in the days ahead. The reality, of course, is that Bill Clinton will not be making regular trips like this. And while the outcome of this trip is fantastic, and the political tableau it provided fascinating, the truth is it also offered the U.S. government a way to open talks with North Korea that not only saved them face but allowed them to look the hero. How high a price it exacts on future Americans held in similar situations remains to be seen.