Originally Posted by Bart

At the risk of raising the hackles of a few of my adoring fans, in my previous life in the military, many US citizens had the same disregard for State Department warnings about the status of certain countries probably believing that the threat was overblown or that the US Government was paranoid. These were the same people who had to be evacuated/rescued once the country in question when to crap (as predicted in the State Department warning).

I used to be one of the participants who planned, coordinated and executed the evacuations of US citizens from Africa and certain other hot spots.

It's a job that has to be done even if there are those who believe it's a wasted effort.