Your Government at work!

No doubt you have heard the cheerful news that the US is evacuating American citizens from Lebanon. Also no doubt, you assumed that this was a totally unexpected war situation, endangering the lives of those Americans, the government would pick up the tab.

Guess again. This is part of an offical American embassy letter:


http://beirut.usembassy.gov/lebanon/Lebanon_Situation_Update.html

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. In a subsequent message, when we have specific details about the transporation arrangments, we will inform you about the costs you will incur. We will also work with commercial aircraft to ensure that they have adequate flights to help you depart Cyprus and connect to your final destination.

Nice to know you can count on them in an emergency.
BTW, that flight from Cyprus comes out of your own pocket too.