As noted here, that press release states:
The Department of State reminds American citizens that the U.S. government does not provide no-cost transportation but does have the authority to provide repatriation loans to those in financial need. For the portion of your trip directly handled by the U.S. Government we will ask you to sign a promissory note and we will bill you at a later date.
Could the government in Washington be any more heartless?? It's own citizens - civilians - are caught in a warzone not of their own making, and these bastards are going to charge them money to evacuate to safety? Or is this Bush's "Compassionate Conservatism" at work?
It's bad enough that Bush is an utter embarrassment on the world stage, but you'd think that he might actually take an interest in the safety and well-being of American Citizens.
1 comment:
Oops! You weren't supposed to NOTICE that part! Bush wants to be the hero for evacuating US Citizens, and he wants to be the hero of the American taxpayer.
So a few Americans lose a few dollars for the privilage of being moved by the government. I'm sure it's no more than mere pocket change given it is a popular holiday destination... OOPS! I mean War Zone. Ok, so it might go into the five digits... but that's the cost of a car... maybe they sell their house... but at least they can say they are americans and haven't sold their lives. (Oh, wait... didn't they do that when they originally elected Bush?).
Yes, I do think that the government ought to cover the costs of retreival of citizens from war or disaster zones. Protection of citizens is one of the reasons why we have consulates worldwide to begin with.
I think that the consulates are used to providing emergency funding in the form of loans to citizens, and they've got the promessary paperwork. They just got a little overzealous in its use. After all, is Bush really stupid enough to expect evacuees to cover the cost of retreival operations? Wait... don't answer that...
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