Battleangel

Priceless: US citizens are essentially getting double billed for a shoddy evacuation from Lebanon. Your neoliberal wants less government, at twice the price. Or whatever.

US Citizen in Lebanon? The US State Department would like to remind its citizens that they do not provide no-cost transportation. Want to leave? Just sign this promissory note, and we’ll be happy to fly you out on our gunship. We’ll bill you at standard commercial rates, plus interest. We simply do not have the resources to pay for it ourselves.

And they can’t exactly bill Israel either, though that would be fair in a roundabout way, since that would be payed for by American taxpayers at the end of the day.

On a side note: It’s funny because I also noted that although Sweden responded in the usual lethargic, though cautious manner, when it came to evacuating its citizens, very few complained this time around. Unlike the aftermath of the last tsunami when officials where chastised for months, if not years, without end, by right wing pundits and the usual suspects, rabble. Apparently, now it’s OK to blame the victim again.

Addendum: Did I say lethargic? Well, apparently even the heavily slanted The Local now thinks Sweden did a bang-up job at evacuating (via Digg).

4,000 Swedes evacuated by text message: Sweden has been praised for the speed with which it got its citizens out of Lebanon, while other countries have hardly begun. Apparently the key to the smooth operation was a joint effort by the foreign ministry and Swedish mobile networks who used text messaging to get evacuation alerts to all Swedes in the area.

Also of interest: Israel’s efforts to block transport ships from entering Lebanese waters. Not to mention how the Digg thread is accused of being America-bashing for just praising another nation. Now that is indeed poignant.

Or you could do it like Bruce Dickinson: Iron Maiden Singer Airlifts 200 Beirut Evacuees