US to Citizens: Pay Up to Escape Lebanon

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You’d think we’d have gotten better at evacuating Americans in disaster’s way after Katrina totalled New Orleans, but apparently not. The Los Angeles Times reports that hundreds of US citizens trying to escape Lebanon are still stranded there, while other countries have already scooted their nationals to safety on hired ferries and buses. The Pentagon has apparently contracted a private cruise ship to pick up some 750 people today – and has told evacuees they will have to reimburse the government for the cost of their own rescues. Any reason they’re not sending one of the several US Navy ships stationed in the Meditteranean and nearby Red Sea that were paid for with those would-be evacuees tax dollars?

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