The State Dept. Can't Figure Out How To Evacuate US Citizens from Lebanon

[leftchick]

They will probably handle this as well as other catastrophies. Extremely badly. :(

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1150886006983&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

<snip>

The United States is working on a plan to evacuate American citizens from Lebanon to the neighboring island of Cyprus, the U.S. Embassy said Saturday.

"We are looking at how we might transport Americans to Cyprus. Once in Cyprus, Americans can then board commercial aircraft for onward travel," an embassy statement said.

One possibility is to evacuate the Americans by helicopters to Cyprus.

The US had already been calling its citizens to consider leaving Lebanon once the conditions enable such a departure.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Friday that the US is urging its citizens in Lebanon to "assess their personal security situation," and consider leaving the country when that becomes possible. According to McCormack, no American citizen has yet to leave Lebanon due to the closure Israel imposed on the country. "From the US government perspective, there aren't any ways to get out -- reliable ways to get out by air, land or sea," McCormack added.

[Lost-in-FL]

1. Notice how this is only posted by Foreigm media

See yahoo for example; their feature article is WAS REMBRANDT A NARCISIST?

[havocmom]

2. Maybe we need a new Cabinet post: Secretary of WTF Do We Do Now?

Undersecretaries for:
Evacuations from disasters inside the United States

Evacuations from disasters abroad due to poor policies

[Lost-in-FL]

4. Hope FEMA is not in charge

:eyes:

[havocmom]

10. FEMA = Fugit About Managing Anything

;)

[EFerrari]

5. You nailed it. You should send that to Keith. n/t

[havocmom]

11. Yeah, Would be better to hear my lines uttered by KO

than Anderson Cooper, who has swiped a line or two from me.

[EFerrari]

13. When mr sf does that, I charge him $20. Send Anderson a bill.

:)

[havocmom]

16. LOL Yeah, we would all be RICH RICH RICH!

I don't often even see Cooper. I get word from other evilDUers when he copped a line.

$20 huh? Damn, I am missing a gold mine! Hear my lines echoed quite often by Havocdad and others. :think:

[EFerrari]

17. The going rate is actually higher! It's $50-100 a line!

I was only trying to be nice to mr sfex.

:rofl:

[leftchick]

8. 25,000 US citizens are there!

it is shocking that the pretzeldent gets away with fiddling while another country burns and our citizens suffer. Again. :(

[havocmom]

18. B-b-b-but there's pig to be eaten...

:grr: Worst president ever. Worst excuse for a human being in a LONG time!

[EFerrari]

3. It's so good to know the B* misadministration takes such good care

to meet the basic requirement of any government, protecting the people. :sarcasm:

[MADem]

6. The runways are trashed, they have to do one of three things

Send in a crew of Seabees to fix the runways and air-bridge out of there, aircraft after aircraft after aircraft.

Helo people or use small craft to transport people to a carrier or amphibs offshore (WAY quicker than trying to ferry them all the way to Cyprus) and then steam there. They'd have to be far enough offshore to make it tricky to hit them, like they did the Israelis. One of those hydrofoil type vessels would work well at this--fast, carries a shitload of people, easy to maneuver.

See, the FRENCH do not fuck around:

Meanwhile, France was putting in place a special ferry to evacuate its citizens in Lebanon who wish to leave starting on Sunday, the foreign minister said.

The ferry will transport to Cyprus any of the thousands of French who want out of Lebanon following recent IDF attacks on Hizbullah targets in response to the kidnapping of two IDF soldiers on Wednesday. Special Air France flights will bring evacuees to Paris from Cyprus, Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said Saturday.

The third option that they proposed is stupid, wasteful, and impossible. We are talking twenty five thousand Americans, here. Yer gonna helo them all? Come on....

It would have been nice if the Israelis had sort of thought about this little factor, and how it would affect their only ally. There are ways to damage runways so that the repair isn't too onerous.

[havocmom]

12. Seabees prolly busy in Iraq

or maintaining/building secret bases.

[pooja]

7. Guess they're stuck... Good luck.. Meanwhile Bush rides his bike

into tree.

[Skidmore]

9. We couldn't evacuate citizens from one of our own cities.

Why should we have confidence that this administration will be able to accomplish an evacuation on foreign soil, given the dcurrent state of our foreign relations.

[tanyev]

14. State Department can't find ass with both hands. Film at 11.

[dipsydoodle]

15. "One possibility....

is to evacuate the Americans by helicopters to Cyprus"

Yes they could those little black unmarked ones. There's probably quite a few at hand up the road in Iraq. Whether or not Cyprus is such a good idea is a different matter - half the island is Turkish and it would appear that Turkey is supporting Lebanon on this issue.

[stepnw1f]

19. So If an American is Killed there's Reason for US Involvement for War

The US is sure doing everything possible to esculate us all into a WWIII.

[killbotfactory]

20. The Bush people aren't so good at evacuations

[lovuian]

21. They don't want to waste the money or get involved

I saw navy ships launching unmarked helicoptors... but that could be it

[spanone]

22. This Government is a top to bottom sham. IMHO

They are in the business of catering to business. Fuck the people. Fuck us.