Examine the terrain and the political situation.

Going south is going TOWARDS mountains and the worst of the shooting (bad idea). North or East, and you are going towards mountains and rivers, and Syria. Who the US government doesn't have any formal relations with (can we say hostage or homeless, flip a coin and call it- your credit card won't work and no one will change money for you off the black market, assuming they dont' intern you).

Assuming you make it that far- Hezbollah would probably cut your throat or seize you has a bargining point, or the Isrealis would shoot you becuase you are trying to cross the border and they don't know who you are, if you go south. Or, you'd convoy up, and since the Isreali's don't know about your convoy, they bomb the road at the start and stop of it, making a kill zone for the cannons on the aircraft in question. If you somehow survive to go East into Syria, as I said, who knows. No US embassy, and the European embassies don't HAVE to take you if you look suspicious (more on that later) and as a result, won't.

If you go west, you've got the Med, and the Isreali's aren't very happy with anything leaving shore that they don't know about, aka, they sink it. Screaming "I'm an American, don't shoot" doesn't really help, even on the GAURD bands, becuase they know perfectly well that a lot of the Americans who are getting out look and sound like locals becuase they were locals. A lot of the people who are getting out look (and are) Lebanese or Palestinians who got out of the country while the getting was good. Even with a US passport, let's face it, Iran makes US hundred dollar notes that look just as good as the ones from the US Mint, so I have no doubt that they can fake passports. Oh, wait, they have. At best, assuming Isrealis bother to board you, they arrest you and stick you in hole that makes Gitmo look pleasent until they get around telling the US Embassy that they've got someone pretending to be an American and can someone come check this out.

Add in that Isrealis have removed from operation any airstrip in Lebanon big enough to put a C-130 down, and taken out all the bridges that cross all the rivers on the northern and eastern boundries.

In a nutshell, you have no where to go. War unto itself isn't filled with a lot of civilization. When the Isrealis and thier neighbors are fighting, there are no noncombatants in either sides' eyes, there are no uninvovled parties. If they think you are on the wrong side, they will shoot you, no fuss, no muss, no screwing around. This goes back a hundred years, to when the Zionist rebels and the Palestinian rebels would take breaks from killing eachother by killing British troops and territorial/colonial officials. And that's taking the typical Ameri.. sorry, short view of history, rather than that taken by people where to be considered a man you have to recite the names of your ancestors going back 5, 10, 20 generations of begatting and begetting. There is no reasoning, there is no bribing. You go to a safe place, and you STAY there until you are taken out to safety by someone big and scary enough that everyone steers clear.

No, when you are outside of your native land, if you need to evacuate, you contact your embassy, tell them who you are, where you are, and ask for thier advice. Follow it. Part of why I say that is, Lebanon is a country that records the names and passport numbers of entering westerners. Odds are, the Embassy had those numbers about ten minutes after the first IADF bird crossed the border. So they know you are in country, and they need to check you off, it is part of what it means to be an embassy. Also, evac points declared by an embassy are no-shoot areas- the Issies won't touch them, and Hezbollah would be out of luck with thier landlords (not to mention the Marines), so they won't shoot at it. We've publicly announced where they are.

Now, keep in mind, people who are going out are being packed in to maximum capacity. You have room for one, maybe two pieces of personal luggage, and they have to be small. The captain and crew of the vessel have no problem saying "your luggage goes back to land or you do", and are within thier rights. So you aren't seeing huge superBOBs with umpty-hundreds of hours of gear in them. Daypack, maybe up to the size of a medium ALICE pack or a large airline carry on, or a medium-large suitcase, and a shoulder bag. That is what you are going to be able to take out- the manual for this kind of thing hasn't changed since the fifties, and I know people who were evaced out Greece, Egypt, Lebenon, Liberia, Vietnam and the Cote de Ivory in US Navy-owned landing craft and aircraft using that manual. I know other who were issued it- the rules haven't changed. There is a set limit on what you can take for luggage, and again, no one is playing games, no one is bending rules- you follow them or you stay behind and take your risks.

Also keep in mind, these are by and large vacationers. Do you drag BOB with you to cross something like 8 or 9 time zones so he can lay on the beach next to you? No, not unless you've taken this to a level that I frankly am not sure is healthy. And they probably didn't have much warning, certainly not as much as the man on the street would have, becuase tourists stick to touristy places and they don't hear the rumors. Admittedly, there were no small number of tourists who were visiting family that stayed behind when they emmigrated- I dare you to leave you grandmother behind in a warzone AND look her in the eye as you take her stock of emergency water. If you can do both of those things, there are a few things I could say to you, but they aren't suitable for young ears. And there were no stockpiles left to buy within an hour or two of the airport being bit, which is when everyone realised that this was a for-real situation.

No, this is how evacuations occure. It's isn't fun, it isn't cool. It is dirty, hot, miserable, and usually leave you not only feeding the fish but dead broke. But it's better than staying behind and becoming a target.