American college students hole up in Beirut

[cal04]

‘I've never been this scared in my life,’ one tells MSNBC.com
Joanne Nucho thought she would be spending her summer in a safe Western-style city when she headed off to Beirut, Lebanon, to study Arabic as part of her doctoral program at UCLA. The city is hip and urban, with many comforts of home — there's even a McDonald's across the street from her school, American University in Beirut, and several Starbucks stores nearby.

But suddenly she finds herself huddled in a college dormitory with 40 other Americans, trapped in the middle of an undeclared war and fearing for her life.

Nucho, 27, is one of several hundred U.S. residents studying abroad this summer at the American University in Beirut, a school accredited in New York state that has about 7,000 students, most of them from Middle Eastern countries.

Nucho is one of about 40 students in the summer Arabic language program, many of whom have been huddled in a university dormitory since fighting between Israeli forces and Hezbollah guerrillas broke out Wednesday.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13862665/

[SlipperySlope]

1. Great sex in a war zone

Yummy!

[MADem]

3. Go right ahead...truth of the matter is, you're more worried about your

bowels giving way from sheer fear.

Especially if the loud CRUNCH sounds are close in and unremitting.

[MADem]

2. History repeats itself, this happened the last time, too

While the Reagan administration considered a military response to the truck bombing, Islamic Jihad continued its campaign against American targets. In January 1984, Islamic Jihad gunmen killed Malcolm Kerr, the president of the American University of Beirut. Months later, William Buckley, chief of the CIA's Beirut station, became Islamic Jihad's first American kidnap victim. Buckley was eventually smuggled to Teheran via Damascus aboard an Iranian plane. He died in Iran after being tortured.

http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/lebanon/tl03.html

[MnFats]

4. and like Reagan invading Grenada to rescue students...

...Bush will get the bright idea that U.S. troops will help resolve the situation in our favor...Rescue me from this idiot president...

[shadowknows69]

7. No Bush will probably do nothing and let Israel kill our citizens.

n/t

[Idioteque]

5. AUB is the alma mater of a few of my aunts and uncles.

Let's hope the sudents all end up alright.

[pitohui]

6. i wish them well and hope it turns out ok

i know i've been urged to visit beirut before and told how beautiful it is

in better times it must have been a wonderful opportunity, it's a shame all this crap has to screw it up