Posted on 07/18/2006 12:46:21 AM PDT by rebel_yell2
BEIRUT — Thousands of Americans whose vacations and business trips to Lebanon have degenerated with sickening speed into stints in a battle zone remained stranded here under Israeli bombardment Monday, their frustration and anger mounting because the U.S. government hasn't gotten them out faster.
Waiting around Beirut with bags packed and fingers crossed, U.S. citizens derided the embassy for busy phone lines, a lack of information and gnawing uncertainty over when and whether they will get out. Hundreds were expected to be shipped to Cyprus today, but how long the full evacuation will take remains uncertain.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Why isn't anybody discussing evacuating Israel? They seem to be getting bombarded too.
"I did."
"It doesn't seem like you thought about it at all."
"o.k., I'll think about it again...No."
"Later, we're bugging out."
"See ya, I'm neither a Democrat, nor an idiot. I'm going to catch the bus with the U.S. Marines. I am not going to Syria."
Rebel_yell2 is indeed on The List AFAIK, and would've evac'd on the French ferry this Monday, if but for it already being full.
I think Rebel_yell2 said he was there under the PROTECTION of the UN, I don't know if he was working with or for them.
I suspect he was not exactly directly working for them or they would have moved him out with their crew.
Depends on what the meaning of "under the protection of the UN" is.
When he is back, maybe he can let us know more about it, but while there with non-friendlys readying also, would not get specific if I were him.
Rebel_yell2 has posted to me that Israel has blocked small boats from coming in and going as well (which makes sense).
My thinking though is that some group of smaller boats will come in with the knowledge of Israel so they won't get shot right off, but those could still get hit by terrorists wanting to blast groups of Americans in one place to pieces.
What kind of assurances do you get that you will get out safe in the middle of a bank robbery or a car jacking?
It is a totally unstable area now and no one can guarantee anything.
French, Italy and others already had arrangement with boats in place and the companies with the boats knew they were not at that much risk with them as they would be Americans.
Part of the problem is ships don't want to go in now, especially for Americans.
Prayers are the best think, I agree with you.
Why isn't anybody discussing evacuating Israel?
Is that a serious questsion?
I'm sure it's a terrifying situation but I imagine that in spite of the State dept's ineptness, our country is doing everything possible to get them out asap. I doubt it's as simple as showing up in port with a cruise ship.
Hang in there, folks!
Not very familiar with recent history are you? Oh, and as for your other rude comment, get over yourself.
I guess I'll have to go back further and get information on this thread. I've tried to follow to see if Rebel_yell2 is out of danger zone yet but I guess he's still there?
Oh my...this is getting very ugly over there.
Whether terrorism or natural disaster, those of us who *have* traveled outside the US and who *do* carry passports understand that we accept the risk of travel, whether on business for for pleasure. I have a little more expectation of assistance as a military dependent or from my company than I would as a private citizen tourist. But because the US is a target of terrorists, I might expect to hunker down a bit longer to be sure it is safe for a large number of us to be moved. It's smarter and safer for us to move a few at a time.
You do realize, that if you are living on the economy, numbers of Americans living in a certain neighborhood or apartment complex are limited so as not to make that area a target of terrorists? Of course there are some places where it's not safe to live on the economy and then everyone lives together with high security measures.
I think the big problem is the Katrina-esque response of the media and some who are in Lebanon right now. People are all too willing to jump all over the government and play the blame game. The logistics are dicey--this is a war zone. You can't just prance through the hail of missiles and make everyone safe. I don't disagree that the bureacracy has become gigantic and bloated, but whose fault is that? Ours. We're their employers!!!
You make valid points.
Typical. Get yourself into a bad situation, then cry because the "government" isn't doing enough to help you.
Spare me.
Someone get that halfwit bimbo a new template. I mean, Jesus H. Christ, the poor Marines can't run an obstacle course any more without some ignorant slut in an LA office telling the world they're bogged down.
Does Fwenchman-wannabe Dean Bacquet, and do his mob of infirm-wrist editors, have the slightest scintilla of an inkling of a shadow of a hint of a clue how galactically stupid and biased they look?
I'll answer that. Hell no. If Bacquet ever saw a clue, he'd probably cry "eek" and stand up on his chair till somebody went and found a man somewhere, to kill it.
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
I'd direct you to this link for further edification:
Here is an excerpt from that article re: Hezbollah's killing of Americans in case you're not a link clicker...
THE HEZBOLLAH MODEL
In the U.S. demonology of terrorism, Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda are relative newcomers. For most of the past two decades, Hezbollah has claimed pride of place as the top concern of U.S. counterterrorism officials. It was Hezbollah that pioneered the use of suicide bombing, and its record of attacks on the United States and its allies would make even bin Laden proud: the bombing of the U.S. marine barracks in Beirut in 1983 and the U.S. embassy there in 1983 and 1984; the hijacking of twa flight 847 and murder of U.S. Navy diver Robert Stethem in 1985; a series of lethal attacks on Israeli targets in Lebanon; the bombing of the Israeli embassy in Argentina in 1992 and of a Buenos Aires Jewish community center in 1994. More recently, Hezbollah operatives have plotted to blow up the Israeli embassy in Thailand, and a Lebanese member of Hezbollah was indicted for helping to design the truck bomb that flattened the Khobar Towers U.S. military base in Saudi Arabia in 1996. As CIA director George Tenet testified earlier this year, "Hezbollah, as an organization with capability and worldwide presence, is [al Qaeda's] equal, if not a far more capable organization. I actually think they're a notch above in many respects." Credit: Daniel Byman
Follow up... not "you" specifically. "You" in general terms.
I do hope you make it out safely. This is probably quite a logistical undertaking, not to mention the problem of telling you all what's going on without letting the terrorists know with sufficient lead time to attack you.
To say that Lebanon "underwent [a] democratic revival in which pro-Western government replaced Syrian dominated regime" is an exaggeration. If the current Lebanese government is much too weak to even confront Hezbollah and continues to allow Hezbollah to do its terrorist thing within its own borders, it can't be called "democratic" nor can it be called "pro Western." The fact is that Hezbollah has been the de facto ruling regime in Lebanon.
And, sadly, that's why a country with such natural beauty has not been a vacation destination for sane people for several decades now.
Glad to hear that. I only think of Beirut in terms of war.
Why hasn't the IMF gotten him out? And that is not sarcasm; many companies who send employees to foreign countries have plans to get employees out in times like this. Companies have gotten employees out of situations like this in the past.
There's always a plan on file for a NEO of every nation. The plan will have been dusted off. Lebanon is in the US Central Command AOR, which element has other things going on also. In this case the plan may have depended on assets that are not available with the carrier surge in Asia. Understand that making these plans and updating them requires an extensive committment of staff time, and changing events always require some parts of the plan to be "fragged," or altered by fragmentary order (FRAGO). The plan is usually done by the theater combatant command or its subordinate special operations command.
Normally, the NEO is conducted while the environment is still permissive. All US Citizens are identified and are given assembly points, which might be something like a soccer field. Military forces, usually Marines because of their deployability and expeditionary orientation, meet them there and organise them for ground or air transport.
The State Department urges all Americans to register with the embassy on arrival in the sort of foreign countries where a NEO may be required -- it's in the state travel advisory. Most don't bother until things get ugly, and then they cop an entitlement attitude, which is exactly what we're seeing here.
I guarantee you most of the people tying up the State Department lines right now are trying to do the registration they should have done on landing, asking dumb questions, or insisting that the US has a duty to evacuate not just them but their Lebanese extended family, pets, houehold china, and Land Rover. One thing you always see at NEOs are old expatriate men trying to bring their bar girls. (If you love her that much you should have married her and given her legal status, Jack. But you don't love her that much).
A moment's thought should tell anyone that a limited number of phone lines and a limited number of consular officers at the Embassy mean that you wait your turn among your 25,000 countrymen, and that hanging on the line to argue minutiae or demand answers to questions the junior officer on the phone can't answer (cause even the Ambassador doesn't know yet) is just screwing your buddy -- but Americans definitely do that. Some 60,000 seat stadiums only have two people selling tickets on the phone, and they get by.
They can't simply add fifty lines and fifty operators (how? Outsource to India? How long does it take to get a phone turned on in Beirut anyway?) every time a crisis breaks out.
If the environment goes non-permissive, the NEO has specific plans for that as well, about which I will say less for obvious reasons, but the focus is finding and securing all Americans (and sometimes foreign nationals, by diplomatic arrangement; for instance we often pull British and French nationals and they often pull ours) and bringing them to safety.
Where they will complain bitterly about the lodgings and food... they deserve better... they're entitled.
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
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