GLENN: In Cincinnati, there's a 22-year-old American college student that returned home last week. He had been imprisoned in North Korea for 17 months. He died in a Cincinnati hospital. He had been home less than a week.
Now, the reasons why the North Koreans sent him home is because they said, "He got botulism. He was in prison and somehow or another, he got botulism, and he went into a coma." That excuse, doctors are now saying, is not an excuse. It is a slap in the face, to America, to our intelligence.
As Otto Warmbier came home to Cincinnati, greeted by his parents, he was unable to speak. He was unable to see. He was unable to react to any verbal commands.
His parents said he looked so uncomfortable and in so much pain. They knew they would never hear his voice again, but they said the look of anguish on his face within a day was gone. They believe that he knew he was home.
He had severe brain damage. One senior US official told the New York Times that intelligence reports show that Warmbier had been repeatedly beaten, beaten into a vegetative state.
Now, since the 1990s, 16 Americans have been detained by North Korea. And during that time, it's incredibly rare to see evidence of abuse or torture. North Koreans have been very, very careful. They don't want to give humanitarian groups any, you know -- any cause to protest. They don't want to hand anybody more ammo for criticism.
We're, by the way, still technically at war. I don't know if people really understand this, but no peace treaty was ever signed during the Korean War. We are still technically at war. We have an armistice. We have a -- a standoff.
So now, why, at the brink of war, with three carrier battle groups -- the only time the United States has ever had three carrier battle groups in one region, it has been because we were about to go to war. War always follows -- in the past, war always follows three carrier groups in a region.
So why, when we have all of that firepower, did the North Koreans break decades of pattern to deliver us a broken, beaten, and clearly tortured American citizen?
He was murdered by the Kim family syndicate. And I want you to understand that. Because it's -- it's not a nation. This is a group of people held hostage by gangsters. Kim Jong-un made this Cincinnati -- 20-year-old Cincinnati resident into a Corleone-style message. This is what the mob does. They beat or kill and dump the body on your doorstep. And that's exactly what they did.
He was killed and beaten, not because he took a poster or tried to take a poster. He was beaten because he was an American citizen. And his death was meant to intimidate us.
Why would he break decades of a standoff? Well, I think the answer is found here: How exactly do we respond to this? We're at war. Is this not a war crime?
The State Department should be demanding those responsible to be held accountable. But North Korea is never going to comply. But we at least owe that to the family of this victim.
Why would Kim Jong-un do this at this time? Secretary of Defense James Mattis said that a war with North Korea, quote, will be catastrophic, and the worst kind of fighting in most people's lifetimes, end quote.
Is it possible that we have waited and waited and waited and waited and pussy-footed around with North Korea, to the point of no return, and now North Korea knows we don't want to fight. They know they have the upper hand. And now the tail is going to wag the dog.
Multiple battle carrier groups are sitting off the coast of North Korea. They can't sit there forever. Capitulation on our side is not an option.
The only way out, we have said, is if Kim Jong-un gives up and dismantles his nuclear and missile programs.
Do you think he's going to do that? Was this the sign of a guy dumping a body off on our doorstep? Is that not the answer of what I'm going to do with our nuclear missiles?
Yeah, am I going to stop them? No, I just dumped a body on your front doorstep.
Here's the thing: He's worried about the survival of his regime. He can't be perceived as giving into the United States of America. He is escalating this. And we're moving closer to war.
The question is: What will we do? What should we do?
