[Jedi Master Pikachu]

Mr. Valentine, you seem to be stuck up and boastful. Why exactly did you travel to high risk places? And while rebel_yell 2 could be slamming the State Department a bit too hard, he still is the one stuck there (and from his posts it does not seem that he traveled to Lebanon with the intent of going to a dangerous place).

[John Valentine]

I am neither boastful or stuck up. Maybe my tone wasn't appreciated. OK, I apologize. Sometimes we have to be places that aren't as secure as we would like. I'm not talking about vacations. Right now, I'm in a place I won't name, but today my company was named on a jihadi website calling for an open season on us. But, I'm not leaving - yet. If things head totally into the crapper with Iran, I will probably have to slip away from where I am, but I doubt I'll have help from the State Department.

My point remains. What the US government is doing is heroic, dangerous, difficult and completely beyond what is required of them.

We ought to be grateful for whatever help they can provide to get us out of what are, truly, fundamentally, our private difficulties, and spend less time complaining about busy phone lines.