Austin Bay Blog

Yesterday I commented on the NEO (Noncombatant Evacuation Operation) the US Navy and Marines are conducting for US citizens and national in Lebanon.

This morning that operation has begun to hit its stride. (Here’s a VOA update on the NEO.)

The earlier post attracted a useful comment:

Critciism is always easy, but strikes me as misinformed. People, especially the media, never seem to realize that even under the best of circumstances, it is going to take time to get ships there, depending upon where they are and what they are doing at the time the crisis breaks. The Navy-Marine Corps team, is however, the best there is when it comes to this sort of mission.

I added the following editorial note to the comment:

Yes– the USN and USMC are the world’s best. I’ve already seen one example reportorial ”narrowness” regarding NEOs in general and the Lebanon mission in particular. This evening MSNBC focused on  complaints that people might be charged to ride the Greek ferry to Cyprus the US government is chartering. Relaying gripes and complaints and hyping on fear is easy– the essence of yellow journalism. I have yet to see any cable tv news program address the complexities of a NEO–and the time to begin covering it is now because (heaven forbid) you might just help educate and prepare the audience. I know –just because I haven’t seen a segment doesn’t mean it hasn’t been done. If a reader is aware of a segment covering NEOs and covering NEOs more than superficially, please add a comment and include a link if one is available.

The presence of Hezbollah-operated Iranian anti-ship missiles makes this NEO particularly dicey.

Four days to assemble an evacuation fleet and move it into a war zone is rapid action. It does not appear that way with 24/7 news which relies on a constant stream of sensational headlines. Carping on a microphone is easy. Providing perspective is more difficult. Remember, the Navy is conducting combat operations as well as training operations.

This Reuters factbox provides data on the number of foreign nationals in Lebanon.

According to Reuters: “More than 2,400 Americans are to be evacuated by air and sea on Wednesday out of a total of 8,000 to be brought out.” The UN has hired a Cypriot ferry to pull out family members and some non-essential staff. France has received 8000 evacuation requests. Australia 7500. Britain has a naval task force in the area and expects to pull out 5000 people.

I’ll repeat a point from the earlier post: Evacuees are usually frightened or angry or both. That’s understandable, but emotional volatility adds another layer of difficulty the mission. Most evacuees do not have an appreciation of basic military procedures, much less an understanding of how complicated one helicopter lift mission can be (in terms of planning, logistics, politics, and then there’s the weather…)  I’m not suggesting evacuees don’t appreciate the Navy and Marines– they do. Most have a Hollywood understanding of military ops. (”You guys are our cavalry. Why weren’t you here yesterday?”)

This AP report (via the Washington Posts) notes complaints of “slow action.” The article mentions several political and logistical stumbling blocks (including the Israeli blockade and the capacity of Beirut’s harbor to handle the teeming number of passengers). Agreed, US citizens are prime targets (I noted that last week). The US Navy is already supplying escorts to passenger vessels. The US Navy is performing “guard duty” as well as coordinating evacuation efforts.

Would Hezbollah fire on a passenger vessel or a US Navy ship?

No smart admiral can bet a Hezbollah fanatic wouldn’t try it.