I heard an American in Lebanon complaining on television the other day that she could not get out of Lebanon and there were bombs and all so she really wanted to go home and why wasn’t ‘the government’ there to help her and it’s getting kinda scary and all, you know. Putting her naivete aside, she did seem to at least realize she was in the wrong place at the wrong time. During her brief interview she made the statement that she wondered why the Marines had not come to get her yet.
I couldn’t help but think how odd it is that people EXPECT to be taken care of - by somebody - no matter what situation they put themselves into.
‘The government’ is supposed to fix this, that or the other. In this case, the Marines are supposed to swoop down and take one person out of a war zone and do it RIGHT NOW!
Can you imagine the logistics of getting Marines into a hostile territory to get thousands of Americans out of that hostile territory? And that hostile territory is on the other side of the world?
I read one article that talked about how the French had gotten their people out while American ships were ‘chugging’ over to get Americans. The article was highly critical of how ’slowly’ America was getting citizens out of Lebanon. Later in the article it mentioned quite a few other countries that were just beginning to start figuring out how to get their citizens out while our ships were already ‘chugging’ over to the Middle East.
The article didn’t take into account the distance, the sheer numbers of people who want to escape, the fact we haven’t had troops in Lebanon since the October 23, 1983 Marine barracks bombing in Beirut that killed 241 Marines. Prior to that, on April 18, 1983, the American Embassy in Beirut had been bombed killing 63, 17 of which were Americans.
The article didn’t take into account that France is much closer to Lebanon than the U.S., they didn’t have as many people to evacuate, and they are much more accustomed to turning tail and running than we are. So of course they got their citizens out more quickly than we did.
At this point, all that is beside the point.
The Marines have indeed, come to the rescue. I hope those who wanted them to magically appear out of the clouds to rescue them from their own questionable choices, will at least thank them.
So where are the Marines?
They are right here. Doing what they do. Protecting you and me.
Photos from U.S. Department of Defense
h/t Michelle Malkin
Others blogging about the evacuations: The Coalition of the Swilling, Hillbilly White Trash, Blogs of War, bRight & Early, It Shines for All, Sister Toldjah, Wizbang!, Jo’s Cafe
Open Posts: Stop the ACLU, Echo9er, Third World County, The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns, Is It Just Me?, Woman Honor Thyself, 123beta, LeaningStraightUp, Bloggin Outloud, Bullwinkle Blog, The Pirate’s Cove, Basil’s Blog, TMH’s Bacon Bits, Stuck on Stupid, Adam’s Blog, Conservative Cat
July 21st, 2006 at 4:44 pm
What kills me is these people put themselves AND their families in harms way. Did they think they were going to vacation in Barbados or something?
July 21st, 2006 at 5:19 pm
I know - me too. You have to wonder what on earth they think???
July 21st, 2006 at 6:20 pm
Oh this just pissed me off to no end, which is the reason for my rant about. It’s typical of the liberal socialist beliefs .. it doesn’t matter what you do, the government has to bail you out. They won’t take responsibility.
July 22nd, 2006 at 12:39 pm
Sorry, Teach, for once I have to disagree with you….Forget Barbados, we have fifty wonderful states with all kinds of attractions including nightclubs and great beaches.
July 22nd, 2006 at 1:27 pm
Open Trackback Weekend #11…
Well, the weekend is here and you know what that means……
July 23rd, 2006 at 11:58 am
I saw a bunch of our whiny self centered citizens on FOX news the other day, standing in the BWI Airport complaining about how long it took the US Government to get them out of there. I was heartened to hear that the e-mails that followed were primarily scolding in tone and didn’t have a great deal of sympathy for the complainers…but it was FOX after all.
July 23rd, 2006 at 5:24 pm
This is intellectual Darwinism of sorts.
When I hear these people bitching to our government to get them out, I wonder what the state of affairs was when they went there. Didn’t they know they were going into a war zone or a place that was likely to become one very soon? If so they are idiots and we have far too many of them over here as it is.
The US government is not your daddy. Take some responsibility for your own actions and stop your belly aching.
May 3rd, 2007 at 7:16 pm
why would u do that how old r the kid’s not ok like 14 or 15 ya.