But I cannot believe the story has been out for hours and hardly any reaction in the US. It is burning up the news in Asia. Australia, New Zealand are also very worried. They are closing the schools for their nationals as well. Of course, the Indonesian government is playing it down. One need only look at the photos of Kuta Beach, Bali two weeks ago, though. Quite serious IMHO.
You know, sometimes I wonder if America (the grassroots) really tracks, notices or even cares for its citizens overseas when they are not wearing some kind of a military uniform. There are many many more Americans overseas than just the boys and girls in the Armed Forces you know. 38,000 American civilians alone just in Japan. They are easily forgotten until something happens.
I think this is less a failure of the grassroots as it is a benign neglect by the major media.
Lot of stories on Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and Franklin Graham abusing the poor little Muslim religion, but nary a word on the atrocities such as the school murders in Pakistan. Naturally, nothing has been mentioned yet about this latest outrage in Jakarta, and probably not much will be.
I would say not. Somewhere around 25 have been slaughtered by Arafats goons over here in the last two years and we still give him money. America shows about the least care about its citizens overseas. But don't feel bad, we feed diplomats to the grinder too. After Arafat kidnapped and killed two of our diplomats in Lebanon we gave him a country of his own, Israel's.
There are three answers to that, AIT (from me, a former expat):
1) Americans (the grass roots) don't understand why you would want to work overseas in the first place. There is little to no understanding of the role 38,000 Americans play in Japan. As you know, only expats understand why someone might want to be an expat.
2) Even if they wanted to care, America's news reporting of foreign events is dismal, inadequate, agenda-driven, and very frequently flat-out wrong (as I recall shaking my head in bafflement at the hysterical, left-wing American news reporting which bore absolutely no factual resemblance to the country where I was once sleeping, eating, and working).
3) At the individual level, U.S. embassy personnel can be real saints and great people, even if a bit constrained by their professional roles. But at the institutional level the State Dept. views expats as U.S. citizens who should either be left alone, warned, or evacuated (those are the three options). There's not much room for nuance in the way State handles its risk assessments, and so - when they hear of them - the American people get a very gross and imprecise understanding of what is actually happening in other countries.
BTW, I have a friend in Indo right now, managing the project which I turned down 2 1/2 years ago. I had to weigh the risk of having my wife in Jakarta, and didn't like the odds. He on the other hand has his wife and kids safely tucked-away in Europe, which works for him.