US warships head for Lebanon, thousands flee bombing

[Judi Lynn]

US warships head for Lebanon, thousands flee bombing
Tue Jul 18, 2006 9:53am ET

By Alaa Shahine

BEIRUT (Reuters) - The United States ordered five warships to head for Lebanon on Tuesday in its first major evacuation of Americans as thousands of foreigners packed their bags to flee Israeli air strikes pounding the country.

The U.S. navy said three amphibious ship, a helicopter carrier and a dock landing ship would be involved.

A cruise ship commissioned by the United States, that can carry up to 1,000 people, left Cyprus earlier on Tuesday and headed to the Lebanese coast. Some of the 8,000 Americans registered as living in Lebanon were expected to board the vessel later in the day, a diplomatic source in Nicosia said.

Britain said two aircraft carriers were among six of its ships in the region ready to start rescuing its citizens from the violence.
(snip/...)

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-07-18T135343Z_01_L18334401_RTRUKOC_0_US-MIDEAST-EVACUATION.xml&archived=False

[skooooo]

1. What if...

...one of the ships gets hit by a Hezbolla rocket?

[sweettater]

4. What if...

...one of the ships gets hit by an ISRAELI rocket?

[mom cat]

6. Remember the USS Liberty!

http://www.ussliberty.org/
Isreal has attacked a US ship before.

[Sin]

8. And then.

They blame Hezbolla for launching it from Syria with the Official Made in Iran trade mark found on some of the debris. especially if it hits a ship with like say a large group Americans on it and 3/4 of them die. I can all most hear the Rapture wing nuts having a collective orgasm the sound of dueling banjos still drowns it out.

[rodeodance]

2. well, ssems that Bush has responded.

[snappyturtle]

3. This works well for *.........

five warships to the Lebanese coast........convenient......even after they deliver the evacuees to Cyprus they'll be handy----just in case! :sarcasm:

[dipsydoodle]

5. But they'll get there

after eight or so from the British fleet. Nice to see the UK doing something at least half right just for change.

[coalition_unwilling]

7. Under laws of war and armed conflict, would Hezbollah be

justified in considering U.S. ships as legitimate targets? Just wondering, because after all we do give Israel an enormous amount of military aid each year.

[Judi Lynn]

9. US: can move 2,000-plus Americans from Lebanon Wednesday

25 minutes ago
US: can move 2,000-plus Americans from Lebanon Wednesday

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States will be capable of evacuating more than 2,000 Americans from Lebanon on Wednesday as it ramps up an operation to ferry its citizens from a country being bombarded by Israel, U.S. officials said.

The United States has the capacity to fly 240 people out on Wednesday and use two ships with a total of as many as 2,200 seats for evacuees, Assistant Secretary of State Maura Harty told reporters.

"We will see a dramatic ramp up tomorrow (Wednesday)," she said, adding that the United States had already evacuated a few hundred Americans.

The United States also hopes to ferry a similar number of its citizens from Lebanon on Thursday as on Wednesday, she said. Washington expects to have to evacuate thousands of Americans eventually.
(snip/)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060718/ts_nm/mideast_usa_evacuation_dc

[zippy890]

10. now THIS is making me nervous - Marines heading

to Lebanon.

The Marines have a blood-feud with hezbollah - dating back to that bombing
& killing of over 200 marines there 20 years ago by hezbollah.

I hope they stick to evacuations and don't get trigger happy.

:scared:

[Nihil]

11. Fat chance.

> The Marines have a blood-feud with hezbollah - dating back to that bombing
> & killing of over 200 marines there 20 years ago by hezbollah.
> I hope they stick to evacuations and don't get trigger happy.

Ok, moderated response ... "One can sincerely hope that the gentlemen of
the US Marine Corps will remain as such and not be distracted by events
that happened before most of them were in kindergarten."

(Yeah, I'm not holding my breath either ...)

[daleo]

12. Professional militaries don't have blood feuds

Not if they are properly trained and led, in any case.