Tell me if I'm reading this right.

The reason that the evacuation of American citizens from Beirut is taking so long is... because the White House doesn't want all that bombing and destruction to look as bad as it is, and the 'visuals' would remind people of the fall of Saigon?

How fucking cynical can they possibly be?

A reliable source tells me that the reason the United States has been so slow in evacuating its citizens from Lebanon is that the public diplomacy (i.e., P.R.) issues raised by evacuating under Israeli assault are so complicated. Individuals within the State Department, I am told, have been reluctant to create an impression that the Israeli assault on Lebanon is as bad as it is or that civilian U.S. citizens are being threatened by U.S. ally Israel. If a conflict this severe had broken out in, say, Indonesia, the American embassy would have been shut down the next day and its personnel and families rapidly brought to safety. That's how things normally work. In this case, however, the diplomatic message sent by shutting down the U.S. embassy in the face of Israeli bombing would have contradicted the U.S. government message of support for the Israeli mission against Hezbollah terrorists, which, when added to the general concern within lower-level diplomatic circles about ever creating a Fall of Saigon-style visual for the news media, have led the Americans to be slower than they could have been about getting U.S. citizens out of harm's way.

Jesus Twice. Bush better fucking hope nobody dies so he can preserve the illusion that things aren't really as dangerous as they are. They are essentially leaving Americans in harm's way because they don't want people in this country to think they're in as much danger as they really are?

Just stop and think about that for a second.

My goddamn head is spinning here. This is reprehensible. [tag:Lebanon] [tag:American Evacuation] [tag:Fall Of Saigon] [tag:Failed President] [tag:Conservatism Has Failed]