Cyber War Scorecard -- North Korea 1 – America 0

I’ll admit to being furious when I learned that major American theatre chains caved in to North Korean threats of violence if they displayed a satiric movie depiction of their “dear leader”. 

It’s a cliché that freedom is not free.   There is a cost in defending it.  Sony and the movie chains chose not to pay it.

My anger – shared by a broad swath of the American public, apparently - was based on the belief that surrendering to foreign threats is not what America does.  We are not a people - so I thought – who surrender to intimidation.

I recognize that caution and prudence have proper roles in human affairs, and movie theatre owners didn’t want to risk the safety of themselves and their patrons.  Yet, they could have served their interest by insisting that the government provide security for their establishments.  After all, the threats clearly came from a foreign government.

 

While the ability of North Korea to carry out its threats is highly suspect (the large Korean community in the United States is not known for harboring anti-Americans/fifth columnists), such measures would provide reassurance to theatre goers while displaying a refusal to kowtow to the bluster of a communist dictatorship.

 

The Weekly Standard, a noted conservative magazine, commented in a similar vein and, further, pulled from its archives a very sobering 1978 quote from Aleksander Solzhenitsyn

“A decline in courage may be the most striking feature which an outside observer notices in the west…. Such a decline in courage is particularly noticeable among the ruling groups and the intellectual elite, causing an impression of loss of courage by the entire society.”

What can be done now?  Sony has declined to comment on whether The Interview would be released later. 

Here is a suggestion:  announce a new date with a promised show of strong security being present and promote the date, and the event, as a show of support for American freedom.  To show up will be proclaimed as a patriotic act.  [The fact that the film is vulgar, in parts, and aims for low-brow humor is irrelevant.  Attendance is not desired to serve entertainment in this case.]  The North Koreans have to be made aware that it is a political matter.  And the world needs to be reminded that America’s historic commitment to freedom remains, despite the ambivalent measures of the Obama Administration.