I've been watching the past 2 weeks with quite a lot of interest, especially the Australian Government's attempts at withdrawing Australian citizens out of southern Lebanon.

In the media, it hag been portrayed that the government had failed Australian citizens inthe area, when the first ship we were expecting to pick up citizens was double booked with Canada, and a succession of failures after this point. however, in the last few days, the government has been quite successful, getting 700 or 800 people out at a time to Cyprus.

Today was the last day of Australian government assistance in fleeing southern Lebanon for Australian citizens or dual-citizens, and the government has now sdaid that anyone else in Lebanon, and especially Beirut, that wishes to get out, they are on their own.

Just wondering if the government should take this stand, or if they should provide assistance to anyone still wanting out. Have people had enough time? Will be interesting to see how many people are "left behind," to put it that way.

With 25,000 Australian citizens or dual-citizens living in Lebanon, the govwernment always knew it was near impossible to get every one out. It was said that there were 4,000 citizens that wanted to get out as quick as possible to avoid the conflict, and this has been, so far as the media has portrayed it, successful in the end.

Should the government stick around?

And that brings up another question: should the Aust. government provide oldiers for a peace keeping force in southern Lebanon?