A “shambolic” response to the evacuation of terrified Brits stranded in Libya has brought shame upon Britain and its once great Foreign Office.

In the wake of Foreign Office bureaucratic bumbling, Britain is celebrating an exemplary Special Air Service (sas) commando rescue mission. But such a dramatic and courageous act by the sas may have been rendered as a last-ditch effort last week by Foreign Office incompetence. As it became clear that Qadhafi was losing control and that violence was gripping many Libyan cities, many nations acted rapidly. France, Italy, Germany, Ukraine, America, Russia and Turkey had much earlier all got ships and planes in—ignoring Libya’s sovereignty as they put the evacuation of their citizens first.

But the initial British Foreign Office (FO) and cabinet response was feeble and even then when it came was at least 24 hours after other countries began evacuation procedures.

Believe it or not, the appeasing FO asked for official permission for its planes to land in Tripoli. This was obviously refused by Libyan air controllers. Other countries just insisted on touching down—without Libyan permission!

To add to the FO farce, the planes it belatedly chartered for the mission broke down for 10 hours on the tarmac at Gatwick Airport.

The naval response in the form of hms Cumberland—ironically on its way to be scrapped as part of defense cuts—was told not to dock at Benghazi, Libya’s second-largest city, for 24 hours because of “security fears.” Imagine, a frigate of the once fearsome Royal Navy frightened to drop anchor in Libya!

Next, plans to send giant C17 military transport planes were scrapped because of fears of provoking tyrant Qadhafi.

Brits stranded in the country say the British Embassy had done little to help and that they were forced to turn to the Portuguese Embassy, whose staff had been working “round the clock” to help with the evacuation.

According to oil workers trapped 1,000 miles from Tripoli, the official FO response had been to simply ignore frantic e-mails for help.

One senior oil worker was forced to contact the bbc when his attempts to speak to the British Embassy utterly failed.

Speaking to Radio 4, he said: “We are living every day in fear of our lives. Local people are armed with AK-47s. We have asked the British government and they have totally ignored us. They don’t reply to e-mails, they have cut off the phones to Tripoli. We told them the situation three days ago. They did not get back to us. We have very little food and water, maybe enough to last for one day.”

A 50-year-old engineer from Staffordshire, stranded in a remote desert oil field and robbed by car thieves twice in the chaos, said: “We were hoping to be evacuated by a military plane to Malta, [but] we cannot get any answers from the Foreign Office.”

On Thursday, Prime Minister David Cameron, who came under heavy criticism for the inadequacy of the response, apologized for the chaos. He said: “What I’d say to those people is I’m extremely sorry—incredibly sorry.”

Express columnist and author Leo Mckinstry wrote (February 25; emphasis mine):

The first responsibility of the Foreign Office (FO) should be to protect British interests and citizens abroad. But in the case of Libya, now descending into civil war, our well-paid mandarins have failed dismally in that duty. Efforts to rescue British people from the strife-torn North African country have been hopelessly botched.Incompetence, dithering, hesitancy and excuse-making have characterized the flawed operations. Planes have been delayed, ships have failed to dock. … The feebleness of both the Foreign Office and the cabinet over Libya is symptomatic of a deeper malaise within our ruling elite. Across the institutions that should be upholding Britain there is a profound lack of any real patriotism.The cult of globalized diversity means that too many public servants and politicians have no conception of British interests. Moreover a continual barrage of politically correct propaganda in schools, universities and the media has induced a widespread sense of guilt about our heritage.In effect, national pride has been replaced by shame, which can only be assuaged by constant self-abasement and surrender.

What a contrast with the nation that executed the brilliant evacuation of 338,000 soldiers at Dunkirk during World War ii!

In fact, Great Britain was once likened to a lion among the nations. In his end-time prophecy, Micah wrote: “And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the Gentiles in the midst of many people as a lion among the beasts of the forest, as a young lion among the flocks of sheep: who, if he go through, both treadeth down, and teareth in pieces, and none can deliver” (Micah 5:8).

But that national pride has now gone, broken by God as prophesied in Leviticus 26:19. Britain now, writes the Prophet Hosea, has become like a moth-eaten garment (Hosea 5:12) or like an unturned cake (Hosea 7:1-16), which, as any baker will know, will simply crumble under the slightest pressure such as we witnessed last week.

To discover more of Britain’s immediate future and the great hope just beyond that when it once more will be a lion among the nations, request your free copy of Herbert W. Armstrong’s astonishing book The United States and Britain in Prophecy and our booklet Hosea: Reaping the Whirlwind.