The Ins and Outs of Vacationing Abroad

My wife and I are contemplating our next vacation before she has to go to sea this fall (she is in the Navy). We had thought about London, but obviously the recent terrorist attacks might change our minds about that. (Then again, I bet you can get a really good deal on a plane ticket to London these days—okay, so that's a sick joke.) Anyway, we may opt for a week or two in the English countryside instead.

All this discussion of terrorist attacks abroad (at least, outside of Iraq) reminds me of a heated discussion I once had with someone I was traveling with in Italy. We were staying in Rome with my father, who is retired foreign service, his wife, who was working at the U.S. Embassy, and my little sister. There were numerous ongoing terrorist threats against American expatriates; my father cautioned us about this and advised against going into certain areas of town. The argument later arose because my traveling companion felt it unfair that Embassy personnel should be privy to more timely intelligence about these threats than other foreign visitors or the local populace. I didn't see anything wrong with this and explained that as all Americans living overseas are targets it is critical to have access to this intel as soon as it becomes available. Most terrorists would prefer to capture and/or kill Americans above all other nationalities (excepting maybe Israelis, in the case of militant Islamists). The State Department posts advisories on a daily basis, but it's up to the traveler to stay clued in. As far as making any Americans not affiliated with the U.S. Embassy aware of any and all new terrorist threats is concerned, it's not like the Embassy can just pick up the phone and call all Americans in that particular place to warn them directly.