Democratic Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia is being hailed in some quarters for securing the release of John Yettaw from a prison in Burma, also known as Myanmar.

Yettaw is the Missouri man who was sentenced to seven years of hard labor after he took an uninvited swim to the home of detained pro democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Webb couldn’t gain freedom for Suu Kyi, who is still living under strict house arrest dictated by the country’s military government.

We’re taking a look at different perspectives on the story.

First, in his report, CNN’s Dan Rivers calls Webb’s visit to Myanmar an overall success.

He cites the senator’s securing Yettaw’s deportation, and rare visits with Aung San Suu Kyi and junta leader Senior General Than Shwe.

“It perhaps is a sign that there’s some sort of movement on U.S.-Myanmar relations, possibly some reassessment of the current policy of hard-line sanctions and isolation which critics say simply aren’t working and all they’re doing is keeping this country in the deep-freeze, basically.”

But, Brian McCartan writing in the Asia Times has a different take.

He writes that Webb’s visit was not about diplomacy – it was purely political and specifically aimed at China.

“Judging from his comments, Webb seems to think that increased Chinese influence in Myanmar is dangerous both to the country and the larger region….It’s clear to most that Webb and the Obama administration have larger realpolitik goals of containing China in mind.”

In the Irrawaddy, Wai Moe takes a look at the issue from the Burmese point of view -- they’re  “puzzled and angered” that Yettaw was released but innocent Suu Kyi was not.

Quoting a physician in Rangoon, Moe writes why:

“…the main culprit in the case was released but Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who is totally innocent, is still detained.”

Will Carter of KSPR-TV in Springfield, Missouri, gives the story a local angle by visiting Yettaw’s hometown of Falcon – where no one can figure out why Yettaw did what he did.

“We tried to find some neighbors out here to talk to today, but had a very hard time doing so. We did run into one, though, who said Yettaw is a very good person and also a very intelligent individual, but somehow all this got mixed up into what happened overseas.”

Do you think anything more will come of out of Senator Webb’s visit to Burma, like the release of political prisoners? Or was this pardoning by the junta just a single exception?