Rebel_yell2 did TRASH Syria & IRAN .
He stated he wants them to be cut off at the head !
I checked into this thread hoping to see a message from rebel that he was safe.
I think people lost sight of the original article and it became a personal thread about rebel. Nothing wrong with that, but that people should be able to express their opinion even if one of our own freepers is stuck in the middle of it.
rebel, was there on official business with the UN. He had permission from the State Dept to be there (permission, he wasn't registered as being there doing State Dept business). He was under the protection of the UN and I suppose he was registered with them because they did inform him when the UN evacuated their people. He chose not to evacuate with the UN people because they were leaving through Syria. (and I don't blame him for not wanting to take that route)
He did not register with the US embassy before his trip or after he got there. He did not try to register with the US embassy until after the major bombing had started. His major frustration was caused by trying to register and make phone calls to the flooded website and phone lines and the fact that he was not getting communication from the US authorities. I think it is reasonable to assume that he was not getting communication because he was not registered before this all went down.
I have always had respect for rebel as a poster on this board and still do. rebel is/was in the middle of a horrible situation and I cut him lots of slack and I don't care if he rails against us and cusses us all out, but I don't think it was the US government's fault that he was stuck there. I don't think there was anything wrong with the system and I think that even though people didn't get out as fast as they wished they would(because if you are stuck in the middle of a war zone you want to be out yesterday), the US government worked as fast as they reasonably could to get them out.
I look forward to hearing what rebel has to say about the situation after he is safely back on US soil and thinking while outside of the situation, instead on in the middle of the situation.