I'm putting the letter on here mainly because of what's going on with the foreigners. Not because I'm not interested in the Lebanese. I think it may be a relatively efficient way of getting the situation relieved, if enough fuss is made.

You all probably know the Israelis told the Aussies they wouldn't lift their blockade, they told the US the same. The French got a few hundred out. The Swiss a few tens, their embassy is besieged. 15,000 Americans are registered with the Embassy out of an estimated 25,000.

Compared with the magnitude of what is going on the proposed responses are pathetically lilliputian. The timeliness and urgency communicated as astoundingly non-existent as anything in the early days of Katrina. The virtual psychotic disassociation of this administration's dealing with what goes on in the real world, rather than in their image in the "between the ears" world has become a common place.

Read through what Israel has done to roads, bridges and stuff. None of these people, Lebanese or foreign, will be going anywhere in significant numbers, without major changes in the situation.

That is what makes this a potential Katrina. With one ship carrying 700 to 10,000 passengers, it will take 2 weeks to move significant numbers of the Americans. Israel's military says what they want to do will take weeks. Lebanon and the foreigners do not have weeks, I don't think.

It looks to me like we may be facing the potential for either a disaster on the scale of Katrina, or what may become a new hostage crisis with far more people involved than the one in Teheran in 1979-80. Why, well those responsible for prepping Bush for his decisions again didn't make clear enough what a mess he was about to walk into. Right to self-defense. Sure. What about the Americans you're responsible for?

Bush and Hillary Clinton weren't briefed on these unfolding consequences, I don't suppose. But these kind of effects, freezing Lebanese and foreigner in place, must have been known ahead of time, somewhere, one would think.

It looks like we might be moving into a new, for want of a better word, ball-game, in the mid east.

Cruise Ships and credit cards? Hello! Carnival Cruises Anyone? With 150,000 or more affected, it will need a sufficiently large and protected naval force to move them. It has to be deployed as a relief operation, not a military operation, because the locals may not be too friendly after the last few days. Invading Lebanon should not be on the schedule right now, because of the large numbers of lives, of from all over the world have to be safe-guarded.

From: "Rania Masri"

Dear friends,

Thank you all for your letters of concern.  Yes, I am in Lebanon, and,
yes, I am safe, as safe as one can be when one's country is under
attack.

I appeal to you all: we need your voices of outrage to be heard.

Since Wednesday, we have been under vicious, unjustified attack, and
the attacks have been intensifying.

Vicious. Perhaps you have not heard the news because the western news
has not been reporting it.  Perhaps you have seen the pictures because
the western news is not printing the pictures (the media has access to
the pictures, but is choosing not to print them).

As for the attacks, the level of infrastructural damage exceeds that of the 1982
Israeli invasion:

• Every airport has been attacked and rendered unfit for travel.
  The main airport (our only commerical airport) has been attacked
  several times over several days.  The smaller military airports, none
  of which were in use for years, have also been attacked and rendered
  useless.
  
• Every port from the south to the north has been attacked by the
  Israelis.  For the first time, the port of Jounieh was bombed.  (Which
  opens up the rather narrow question: how can the Americans, French,
  British, and Italians -- all of whom have called for the evacuation of
  their citizens -- evacuate their citizens?)
  
• Several major gas stations and electrical stations have been
  destroyed.  There is a rumor that every major gas station in the
  country is under threat.
  
• The major bridges in the country have been destroyed.  We are
  all hesitant to cross over any bridge for the fear that it could be
  the next target.
  
• The main arteries of the country have been destroyed -- from the
  south to the north. What does this mean? This means that travel
  between main cities throughout Lebanon is physically impossible.
  One cannot leave the country to Syria -- nor, and more importantly,
  can one move safely from one area to another, from one city to
  another, and, in the South, from one part of the village to another
  part of the village.  There is only one main route that is still open
  (the highway from nothern Beirut to Tripoli), and since last night,
  Israel has been threatening to bomb the tunnel in Chekka, thus making
  it impossible to go - on the main road - from Jbeil/Byblos to the
  northern areas, and vice versa.  (some basic geography of Lebanon,
  from the central Lebanon to the north, the main cities are:  Beirut,
  Jounieh, Jbeil/Byblos, Batroun, Chekka, Tripoli.   This besieging of
  villages is especially vicious in the South. The Israeli army has been
  calling upon villages in the South to evacuate yet they have destroyed
  the roads on which they can evacuate - so the message is clear: leave
  your homes and we will kill you, stay in your homes and we will kill
  you. They have done both.
  
• What does all this mean?
  • Israel is attempting to scare the Lebanese into submission
    by forcing us to remain in the country and not "escape."  This is
    terorism - in its purest form.
    
  • Israel is attempting to besiege every major community in
    the country, to isolate us so that eventually we will "surrender" when
    there is a lack of food and medicine and other basic necessities.
    Already, numerous villages and the major city of Sour/Tyre have spoken
    about the lack of basic goods.

- Rania Masri
El Koura, Lebanon