On prisoners and hostages in foreign lands...

[catnhatnh]

...not to be unsympathetic but a large majority of these people put themselves in harms way. From the PTSD ex-marine who crossed the Mexican border with illegal weapons, to Christians passing out bibles in China, and onto "tourists" wandering into hostile lands for suspicious/clandestine/idiotic purposes.

Now every time we seek to free one of these people it seems to involve the valuable time of US senators and representatives or highly placed State Dept. employees and often the use of US Air Force transports and sometimes even the irreplaceable time of our sitting President. Often the politicians on the right wing even advocate war as a response and damn the cost-an American is being held...

My question is this-why is it we can't raise SS benefits to save millions of Americans who have done nothing wrong but we can spend millions or even start a war to save a handful of Americans who put themselves at risk?

[yeoman6987]

1. Regardless of why they are there, I think it is our duty

to go get them regardless of the cost. If they did something illegal then our justice system can take action if they want but keeping them a prisoner in a foreign prison is not acceptable. Probably some will disagree but I will never change my mind on this. And SS is not even a logical use to compare as both are very different pots of money and programs.

[MineralMan]

3. Actually, US citizens are still subject to the laws of

countries they are in. We don't have a policy of getting them out of jail. Only in certain circumstances does the government work to get them released from prison if they commit crimes in other countries. There are thousands of US Citizens imprisoned around the world. The State Department will help them find attorneys and check on their welfare, but that's about it.

When US citizens are held as political prisoners, that's another matter, and efforts will be made to gain their release, but not for criminal activity. When US citizens travel, or become expatriates, they're responsible for following the laws of the countries they are in. The State Department offers information about other countries that can help people avoid problems.

[JonLP24]

2. There are times we don't do anything at all

we don't hear about them like Americans trying to flee Yemen being pounded by airstrikes. I certainly do believe we shouldn't be so much money on defense and saving a hostage or two isn't why we are spending all that money. If we limited it to just spending it save Americans that would be OK.

[catnhatnh]

4. I was more trying to address the hypocrisy of the right wing...

Several neo-cons suggested our nuclear treaty with Iran should be trashed and we should go to war instead-because Iran holds several Americans. The cost of such a war seemed to mean nothing to them and yet the same clowns when they wanted to pass fast track insisted on paying for retraining workers with funds stripped from medicare and if you suggest expanding SS benefits every republican in congress is suddenly like Lindsey Graham suffering a fierce case of the vapors over the cost...

[SoCalDem]

5. The red flag I saw today (yesterday?) was the statement that one of the imprisoned was

being held "just because he was a christian".. Nope.. He was probably held because he could not restrain himself from proselytizing .Too many US citizens think they take their "protection" with them wherever they travel. When we traveled as family of military, we were always told that if we got into trouble abroad, we were S.O.L....

I can guarantee you that if you go abroad to an Islamic country as a "tourist", and you start preaching about Jesus, you WILL get tossed in the clink..