The War for Hearts and Minds

Time Magazine ^ | Issue dated Sept 4, 2006 | NICHOLAS BLANFORD, SCOTT MACLEOD/ BEIRUT

[John Carey]

The new war in the Middle East is not being fought with bombs or bullets. Instead, it is being waged amid the rubble and wreckage of Lebanon's streets, and the prize is the support and gratitude of the hundreds of thousands of citizens attempting to piece together their shattered lives. At Mehdi High School in Beirut, now a temporary administrative center for refugees who lost homes in the war with Israel, Abdel Hussein Hodroj asks a bearded young official behind a desk for help. The young man doesn't work for the Lebanese government or a humanitarian group or a United Nations agency. He's a member of Hizballah, the militant Shi'ite Muslim group that fought Israeli forces to a draw during 34 days of conflict--and is emerging as the most powerful force in postwar Lebanon.

Hodroj, 72, describes how Israeli missiles turned his neighborhood in Beirut's southern suburbs into a Lebanese version of ground zero. The bearded man reaches into a lockbox and pulls out $12,000 in U.S. $100 bills. He presses the money into Hodroj's palm. It's meant to pay for a year's rent and furniture while Hizballah builds him a new home. Hodroj doesn't bother to count the inch-thick wad of cash, equal to more than twice the average Lebanese annual income. Score one for the militants. "We're with Hizballah all the way," Hodroj says, stuffing the cash into his pockets.

[MNJohnnie]

If you invite mass murders to set up shop in your house and look the other way while they commit their crimes against your neighbor, you have NO moral right to scream and whine when the police kick in your front door to get the murderers

[txroadhawg]

Never mind the cash is counterfeit

[jstassis]

What, no Euros ?

[hsalaw]

Never mind the cash is counterfeit

It's the thought that counts. Morons.

[My2Cents]

It's meant to pay for a year's rent and furniture while Hizballah builds him a new home...."We're with Hizballah all the way," Hodroj says, stuffing the cash into his pockets.

Yeah, and Mussolini made the trains run on time.

This is what, to a liberal, qualifies as "a battle for hearts and minds" -- handing out wads of cash, while the one handing out the dough is morally corrupt.

[bnelson44]

If you have not seen this elsewhere, read it now:
Vice Director Admiral Sullivan of the JCS Strategic Planning and Policy's take on the Long War. (PowerPoint Presentation)

[rlmorel]

PING FOR LATER NONLURK READ

[sgtbono2002]

Where was Hezballah in New Orleans. The people there were screwed by the US too werent they? They should have had Farrakhan down there handing out thousands of Counterfeit 100's. By the way did anbyone ask WHY the Jooo's bombed them? yup Hizballah again.

[John Carey]

A lot of you guys are missing a few points:
1. Hezbollah is the men of Southern Lebanon, not some people from Mars.
2. If the money works, who cares if it is US legal?
3. Whwere is the U.S. government and its hearts and minds effort? We responded to the tsunami fine but we are going to let these people twist in the wind. Hezbollah is helping them so they will ALWAYS LOVE HEZBOLLAH!

http://johnib.wordpress.com/

[NurdlyPeon]

I like the IDF approach. After you win their hearts and minds, you put each of them in a separate zip-lock bag, and bring them home as souvenirs.

[sgtbono2002]

So when do you think we should stop trying to buy friends in the Middle east? We have been sending money there for the last 40 years and what has it gotten us? We cannot buy these people they wont be bought. We need to stop trying and destroy them. They see our money as a sign of weakness.