U.S. Evacuation of Lebanon

If you haven't been reading the paper or watching the news then you probably haven't heard about the U.S. evacuating americans in Lebanon. It has been criticized as one of the slowest evacuation efforts in Lebanon. Other countries were making more of an effort to get their citizens out of harms way.
There was also talk of the U.S. government charging americans who were being evacuated a fee for transportation. This was dismissed later, but it was a proposterous idea in the first place. Who thought that up?
Bush? Rice?... Ridiculous! When, at any point in history, did a country charge its citizens to be evacuated?
That bothers me.

This whole situation in Israel and Lebanon is looking to be a very long one. A cease-fire is not going to be in sight for a quite awhile. But I guess this is nothing new to the middle east. Rockets falling from the sky seems to have been a daily occurence over there for what seems like an eternity. Everytime I have picked up the paper, since I can remember, there has been a picture of a demolished building in Israel. Maybe one day that will all end and there will be peace over there...but that seems to be very unlikely.

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