Americans Get No Help Fleeing Middle East As War Shuts Down Some Of The World's Busiest Airports

Starting a war in the Middle East has consequences, from rising gas prices to disrupted racing schedules. Another is that tens of thousands of Americans are now stranded in the area with no way out. The Wall Street Journal reports that Iran has not only shot back at U.S. and Israeli military bases in the region, but also major civilian airports in Kuwait, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates, including Abu Dhabi and Dubai. These are notable Middle Eastern flight hubs, as well as the home bases for Emirates and Etihad airlines.

This past Sunday alone, 3,400 flights across seven airports were canceled, stranding not only travelers to the Middle East but also passengers who were just passing through to catch a connecting flight. Dubai has become the busiest international airport in the world, handling over 92 million international travelers in 2024 according to Airports Council International. London's Heathrow Airport, long known as one of the world's top travel hubs, handled 79 million that same year. Dubai International Airport was completely shut down in the aftermath of this past weekend's attacks. "Limited airport operations have resumed today (March 2) with a small number of flights operating from DXB and DWC," according to the airport website.

Making matters worse, the U.S. government seems to have put the cart before the horse when it comes to recommending that Americans leave the region for their safety. From the BBC:

The US has urged its nationals to immediately leave most of the Middle East due to "serious safety risks", as the US-Israeli war against Iran widens.

On Monday, the US State Department said Americans should "depart now via commercial means" from Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, the occupied West Bank and Gaza, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, United Arab Emirates and Yemen.

Washington has so far not organised any evacuations in the region, where many flights have been cancelled or suspended since the US and Israel began striking Iran on Saturday.

The BBC estimates there are 500,000 to one million Americans currently living in the Middle East. The aviation industry is already struggling to figure out how to get stranded passengers home, never mind a massive evacuation effort like this.

When asked why there was no evacuation plan and whether he would send planes to bring Americans home, President Trump said, "Well, because it happened all very quickly." He then continued, in his typical eloquent style, to justify the attack on Iran that he authorized, knowing the timing of the attack, and therefore able to order an evacuation plan for U.S. citizens, if he'd cared to.

One stranded passenger just happens to have some experience with Middle East military matters. Retired Major General Randy Manner oversaw the withdrawal of troops from Iraq in 2010. He, like many others, was just passing through Dubai when he found himself stuck without a connecting flight out. As he told CNN:

One of the small things that does matter to tens of thousands of people here, as well as to their families: It's a little bit disheartening and a little bit envious to hear that the BBC has announced that the U.K. government is actually arranging transport for the British citizens to be able to extract them, whereas here, for us as Americans, we feel abandoned.

Certainly, no one could possibly have predicted that the Trump Administration cutting the State Department's budget in half would have harmful consequences in the Middle East.

The State Departments have talked to two embassy personnel, two different embassies. They are in survival mode, quite frankly, because as we know, the administration reduced their budgets by almost one half over the past year. So this is a difficult situation for people who are not used to being in a combat situation. And that, of course, is, quite frankly, probably 99% of the travelers that are here.

Not even $400 million worth of armored Teslas can solve this problem.