Hacker News Reader

This would have been quite the test for the Biden administration. I'm honestly curious what action they would have taken had it succeeded.

View on HN

This is a line in the sand that the U.S. government should not allow to be crossed going forward. All U.S. citizens anywhere, and anyone on U.S. soil, should be protected. This is one of the very good reasons to have such powerful intelligence agencies and military forces, to literally safeguard freedom.

The U.S. is not a free country if its people have to live in fear of foreign dictators and theocrats. Had she been kidnapped or hurt, Biden would be right to respond with military force against everyone responsible.

Germany on the other hand has an official policy that if you have two passports they will not interfere with the other countries policies whatever they choose to do with their citizen. Canada has had a different stance on that, although arguably still weak, they at least consider their dual citizens abroad to be under their own jurisdiction.

On one hand, the behavior would be different if _literally abducted from German soil_.

On the other hand, the German government has almost no power to project force abroad so it might not matter much (aside from some sanctions or whatever).

Reply on news.ycombinator.com