First, when it became obvious both that the North Koreans were behind it, AND that they were actively trying to dismantle America’s nuclear deterrent–as well as, of course, having engaged in what by any standard is an act of war by attacking and killing many Americans, and taking its two top officials prisoner–why not phone the head nutcase, and give him a simple ultimatum: release the President and all hostages in the next 10 minutes, or your nation goes up in flames.
What does Morgan Freeman do? Agree to the terms, to “save” the President. Now, I have likely quoted Jack Nicholson’s famous line from “As good as it gets before”, but will again. How does one write of a typical leftist? You write a conservative, then remove all sense of reason and accountability.
I have told my kids already: if somebody ever threatens to kill me unless you do something they can’t do by themselves, understand they are going to kill me anyway, and kill you, once they get what they want. You can’t make a good deal with a bad person. Period. This is common sense.
But what has Morgan Freeman done? In order to win some minute chance of saving the President, he virtually ensures war between North and South Korea, and then the destruction outright of the United States.
Yes, it is just a movie, but they make movies like this because people are too stupid to think things through (another personal favorite non sequitur: in Eraser, after Arnie gets to the roof of a highly secure building, how does he get off? We are not told).
To be clear, it is likely millions will die in any war on the Korean Peninsula, since somebody is likely to use nukes, most likely the North.
And compare Obama to Eckhart’s President. Does it not make you want to weep? Could you imagine Obama in a situation like that reacting with even a SHRED of moral courage? What challenges has he surmounted in his life? Running a campaign which mainly consisted in reading speeches from teleprompters someone else wrote? He is to a real President what Ben Kingley’s drug addled Mandarin would have been to a real, serious, terrorist. He is an actor, and not even a particularly good one. No one believes him when he says he feels “compassion”. He was unable even to fake credible tears after the murder of over 20 kids in Newtown.
Otherwise, the movie was the umpteenth knockoff of Die Hard. Worth the $4 I spent.
Edit, two other thoughts.
1. Did we not just go through the scenario described, roughly, of a North Korea taking provocative action, and threatening missile tests? Think about this: Obama’s silence, in the face of a semi-credible threat of nuclear attack, was deafening, at least for those with sense.
2. Gerard Butler’s character is the sort of person, I’m sure, that Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods were: men with character, absolutely dedicated to their cause, and utterly undeserving of what happened to them. They are people who make people like Obama and Hillary look like the midgets they are. They are what makes this country great.
I remember a story a SpecOps friend told me. When Clinton authorized the release of dual use nuclear technology to the Chinese back in the 1990’s, he had just completed SERE school, which among other things involves being locked in what amounts to a dog cage for day or two, and in the advanced training getting waterboarded and beaten. I didn’t ask the details of what happened, but I’m sure it was unpleasant.
What bothered him is that people like him have to undergo very severe, very difficult training to protect secrets that in most cases have a shelf life of no more than 48 hours. Yet, Clinton, who like Obama never underwent any security clearance, was able to release strategic secrets that could affect the destiny of nations, at no cost to himself, and without even being coerced.