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> I've always been reasonably confident that if I'm out of the country, the American embassy will help me. You and many Americans. Helpfully aided in that bel

> I've always been reasonably confident that if I'm out of the country, the American embassy will help me. You and many Americans. Helpfully aided in that belief by TV programs like Beyond Borders where US authorities act as the World Police jumping into other countries and taking over investigations and rescuing US citizens from any and every scrape they get themselves into. Outside your own country, your local authorities have very little ability to do much and certainly won't help you in any relatively minor scrapes (nor in most major ones either). Although the US exerts more external influence than it really should, that's limited to guarding US interests (like copyright protection or drug related things). Unless you happen to be key to US national interest, you'll be on your own, apart from a visit in prison from the embassy staff to let you know that they know you're there - just like the citizens of every other country, as Andrew Nõmm found out.

zeveb 10y ago
> Outside your own country, your local authorities have very little ability to do much Oh, they have the ability, c.f. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ion_Perdicaris#Perdicaris_incident https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ion_Perdicaris#Perdicaris_inci... (threat of war if an American citizen were not released) or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_Jenkins'_Ear https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_Jenkins'_Ear (war over abuse of an English subject) or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbary_Wars https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbary_Wars (wars to prevent enslavement of American sailors). 'Release our citizen or we start shelling' can be a very effective diplomatic tool. It's just that they normally don't bother.
- hydrogen18 10y ago
  The Barbary wars were conducted because of the economic impact of taking American sailors as slaves. Free-ing the enslaved sailors was just a value-added benefit.
- coldtea 10y ago
  The most recent of those examples is from 1904. And there were still "national interest"/"political" reasons in most of them.

zeveb 10y ago

> Outside your own country, your local authorities have very little ability to do much Oh, they have the ability, c.f. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ion_Perdicaris#Perdicaris_incident https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ion_Perdicaris#Perdicaris_inci... (threat of war if an American citizen were not released) or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_Jenkins'_Ear https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_Jenkins'_Ear (war over abuse of an English subject) or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbary_Wars https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbary_Wars (wars to prevent enslavement of American sailors). 'Release our citizen or we start shelling' can be a very effective diplomatic tool. It's just that they normally don't bother.

hydrogen18 10y ago
The Barbary wars were conducted because of the economic impact of taking American sailors as slaves. Free-ing the enslaved sailors was just a value-added benefit.
coldtea 10y ago
The most recent of those examples is from 1904. And there were still "national interest"/"political" reasons in most of them.