Rescued American

[hurleyjd]

Philipe Nathan Walton was on his farm in Niger when aducted. His father lived just about a mile from the farm. Was he an American that should have known the dangers of having and living on a farm in Niger. Sounds more like a kidnapping for ransom. Should the military been involved in his rescue. A lot of questions in my mind as why he elected to live in Niger and own a farm. What does he farm. I think that the local law if there was one should have been the one involved in rescuing him. He since has returned to his farm. This post good chance is political to the Mods here but I thought that may be an opinion other than mind might be posted.

 

[Lucky]

I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand I think we should always rescue abducted Americans as a sign of strength. On the other hand some people should get what they get. Once you leave America to live in another country were does your allegiance lie? If nothing else I'm sure it was good practice for the Seal Team

 

[greybeard]

I know lots of expats from online conversations on other boards, mostly living in the P.I, Panama, S. Korea and a few in Germany. They live in other nations either for economic reasons or because they married someone there and it was easier to stay there than to convince their new wife to leave her extended family.. or both. They usually choose to have dual citizenship if possible. Most of the ones I converse with are people that were formerly on active duty in US Armed Forces.
To me, it doesn't make them any less American than anyone posting here in CT is. Where you live doesn't always or even often change where your heart and allegiance lies.

There are about 9 million US expats living abroad and under US law, all are still US citizens unless they legally renounce US citizenship.

1	Mexico	899,311
2	Canada	738,203
3	India	700,000
4	Philippines	600,000
5	Israel	185,000
6	Italy	170,000
7	United Kingdom	158,000
8	South Korea	140,222
9	Germany	107,755
10	France	100,619

In the case of the recent Walton kidnapping in Niger, his father had been a missionary in that region for decades and the son wanted to be near him in his father's senior years. He became a farmer of sorts, raising mangoes, camels, poultry and sheep according to Reuters news and the son also worked in faith based endeavors there. He had lived there full time just under 2 years. The initial armed encounter took place in son's back yard, and was a robbery. His wife and kids were tied up but left in the house after the assailants ransacked the house and found little. Took $40 from the man and then decided to take him to sell to extremists groups right across the border in Nigeria.

 

[76 Bar]

Thank you for your insightful post GB.