[Beckwith]

I'm here on the ground, trying to contact our embassy staff, trying to register with the State Dept., trying to call the State Dept. Busy, no answer, 50 minutes on hold.

And there's 24,999 other Americans doing the same thing and you call the U. S. Embassy a joke.

I understand you're stressed but imagine how stressed those at the embassy, trying to facilitate the evacuation of 25,000 Americans, are?

I can't imagine why anyone going to that part of the world doesn't make prior arrangements for an extraction?

[rebel_yell2]

I wasn't calling the EMBASSY in Lebanon, I was calling the STATE DEPT. in WASHINGTON!!!

Obviously, the Lebanese embassy is swamped and is a victim of the Lebanese telephone system.

But I find it inexcusable that the State Department was unprepared for the call volume an incident like this would generate.

It did not help having the MSM publicize the number to 300 MILLION Americans.

I can't imagine why anyone going to that part of the world doesn't make prior arrangements for an extraction?

LOL!!! What qualifies as "that part of the world?" As for making arrangement for an extraction, exactly what would someone as wise as you have done? The U.S. Embassy couldn't get its own staff out until yesterday.

Please enlighten me, O Great Wise One of International Travel!

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