* We know the onslaught of unescorted children crossing the Rio Grande into the U.S. is an untenable situation–in border security, in Beltway politics, in budgetary allocations and in human tragedy.
We know these children, mainly from Central America, are victimized by smugglers, but we can only imagine what they are escaping from. For the record, three Central American countries are among the top five countries with the highest murder rates in the world. According to the most recent figures from the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, Honduras is first; El Salvador, 4th; and Guatemala, 5th.
* It was understandable that the centennial of the beginning of World War I would be marked by a ceremony in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina. This is where “the war to end all wars” was ignited 100 years ago with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary and his wife Sophie. There was even the unveiling of a statue.
It was unconscionable, however, that the statue was that of Gavrilo Princip, the assassin. And that an actor dressed as Princip read a poem the assassin had written and fired two celebratory shots in the air before yielding the stage to Serbian folk dancers.
It’s not nearly enough that this was in Bosnia-Serb East Sarajevo. And that historic animosities still resonate. And that Ferdinand was inspecting occupying troops in 1914. You don’t celebrate that which triggered events that resulted in 20 millions lives lost. This is not cause for revelry, but for revulsion.
This was also a sobering reminder that there are places in the world–erstwhile Yugoslavia and eminently-partitionable Iraq come immediately to mind–that still smolder behind arbitrarily-drawn sovereign borders.
* You can’t make this up. Apparently cheesy, summer American movies just hit a new low. It’s called The Interview, and it stars, as it were, Seth Rogen and James Franco. It’s a comedy that spoofs the assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
The North Koreans, who apparently find little in life that is funny, including having a fat kid with a bad haircut for a leader, are more than outraged. They are, in fact, in full overreaction mode, usually reserved for territorial incursions and spies. They want the U.S. government to block the release of The Interview. Failing to do that, said a Foreign Ministry spokesman, would be an “act of war”–not just another sophomoric summer movie imposed on the American public.
And, oh yeah, the North Koreans still plan to prosecute those two American tourists they detained earlier this year.