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Armed With Iran's Millions, Fighters Turn To Rebuilding
The Washington Post ^ | Wednesday, August 16, 2006 | Anthony Shadid

Posted on 08/16/2006 3:15:27 PM PDT by A. Pole

KHIAM, Lebanon, Aug. 15 -- In military-style black shirt and pants, Abu Shaker had a gait that was a little light for someone in combat boots. He smiled through his red-tinted beard, as returning residents waved and shouted greetings. And he pointed with authority, guiding a bulldozer plowing the streets of this Shiite Muslim town, blocked by refuse from a month-long barrage of air raids and shelling.

For 34 days, Abu Shaker was a Hezbollah fighter. By 6:30 a.m. Tuesday, he had taken charge as a relief worker.

"We're going to work until we open all the streets in the city," he said, as the bulldozer thundered across a road.

He looked around at the town, nearly every house scarred. "Whatever the people need, we'll do it for them," he said.

[...]

More than simple reconstruction, the task before Hezbollah could decide the shape of postwar Lebanon. Nasrallah's order Monday to begin rebuilding -- without government coordination or approval -- poses one of the biggest tests for Lebanon's already weak government, which in the aftermath of the war has pledged to exercise its uncontested control all the way to the Israeli border.

[...]

Into the 1970s, some of the villagers here had no roads, hospitals or schools.

In that environment, Hezbollah distinguished itself as a social organization by its lack of corruption, ability to mobilize its people and success in fulfilling its promises. After the last Israeli campaign in 1996, Hezbollah said it repaired 5,000 Lebanese homes, rebuilt roads and provided compensation to 2,300 farmers.

[...]

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Israel; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: 2006israelwar; arab; hezbollah; iran; islam; lebanon; muslim; shia; war
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1 posted on 08/16/2006 3:15:29 PM PDT by A. Pole
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To: A. Pole
For 34 days, Abu Shaker was a Hezbollah fighter. By 6:30 a.m. Tuesday, he had taken charge as a relief worker.

Huh, what do you know? It looks like the positions of Hezbollah fighter and relief worker are interchangeable. Who knew?

2 posted on 08/16/2006 3:18:15 PM PDT by Trust but Verify
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To: A. Pole

Anthony needs to wipe off his chin. He's dribbling Hezzie DNA all over the place.


3 posted on 08/16/2006 3:19:18 PM PDT by L98Fiero (I'm worth a million in prizes.)
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To: Trust but Verify
It looks like the positions of Hezbollah fighter and relief worker are interchangeable.

So were the early Zionist settlers, they were farmers, fighters and when needed the relief workers.

4 posted on 08/16/2006 3:20:27 PM PDT by A. Pole (It is better to have $5M and live in Weston Massachusetts than to have $20M and to live in Bogota.)
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To: A. Pole

These guys are democrats in action. Where as democrats try to talk the economy into the gutter to gain power, these people just go out and do the trashing themselves. And the people come running for that public support afterwards. Happiness in bizarroland.


5 posted on 08/16/2006 3:21:07 PM PDT by kinghorse (I calls them like I sees them)
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To: A. Pole
Armed with Iran's millions...

Would this be the same Iran that always pleads for foreign aid whenever an earthquake strikes???

6 posted on 08/16/2006 3:25:27 PM PDT by E=MC<sup>2</sup> (Are liberals born stupid, or do they have to work at it???)
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To: A. Pole

Amazing. Who knew that Hezbollah was full of civil engineers?

One wonders if the Washington Post would cut the same slack to the rebuilding efforts on the US Gulf Coast??? Not!


7 posted on 08/16/2006 3:26:27 PM PDT by Tallguy (The problem with this war is the name... You don't wage war against a tactic.)
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To: A. Pole

I was alluding to the now-infamous 'relief worker' in the pictures of dead children at the collapsed building. I guess I was too vague......


8 posted on 08/16/2006 3:27:51 PM PDT by Trust but Verify
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To: Tallguy


Heck...rebuilding Iraq...if it's not a car bomb killing civvies in Iraq...the MSM doesnt report it.


9 posted on 08/16/2006 3:28:54 PM PDT by in hoc signo vinces ("Houston, TX...a waiting quagmire for jihadis. American gals are worth fighting for!")
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To: A. Pole
So were the early Zionist settlers, they were farmers, fighters and when needed the relief workers.

Good point. OTOH, the early Zionists didn't undergo a concerted attack by artillery & aircraft -- later backed up by a mechanized assault -- for some 34 days. The damage to roads, bridges & crossroad towns will take many years to repair. It's worse than starting from scratch.

10 posted on 08/16/2006 3:30:00 PM PDT by Tallguy (The problem with this war is the name... You don't wage war against a tactic.)
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To: A. Pole
A caller on El-Rushbo today made the excellent point of how the MSM highlights the Hezbos' reconstruction of Lebanon, but what of our military's far more numerous reconstruction projects in Iraq?

crickets

11 posted on 08/16/2006 3:31:06 PM PDT by DTogo (I haven't left the GOP, the GOP left me.)
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To: in hoc signo vinces

the MSM are anti semites and anti American


12 posted on 08/16/2006 3:31:34 PM PDT by se_ohio_young_conservative ("The only thing we have to fear is fear itself" Franklin D. Roosevelt.)
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To: Tallguy

muslimes are living mentally in the 9th century, may as well be there physically as well. worthless scum.


13 posted on 08/16/2006 3:32:15 PM PDT by RolandBurnam (para mi tagline in ess spanyol markay dose)
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Comment #14 Removed by Moderator

To: Harley69

Ugh. Don't tell me that!


15 posted on 08/16/2006 3:36:02 PM PDT by Trust but Verify
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To: A. Pole

Too bad the drive by media doesn't report on all the wonderful rebuilding and assistance the US is doing in Iraq.


16 posted on 08/16/2006 3:36:56 PM PDT by airborne (Fecal matter is en route to fan! Contact is imminent!)
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To: RolandBurnam
muslimes are living mentally in the 9th century

There are "muslimes" and "muslimes". The differences between their sects are not smaller than between Baptists and Catholics, sometimes they are larger.

You should never underestimate your opponent. And you should always try to understand him.

"One who knows the enemy and knows himself will not be in danger in a hundred battles.

One who does not know the enemy but knows himself will sometimes win, sometimes lose. 

One who does not know the enemy and does not know himself will be in danger in every battle."

(Sun-tzu, The Art of War, chapter III )

17 posted on 08/16/2006 3:41:31 PM PDT by A. Pole (It is better to have $5M and live in Weston Massachusetts than to have $20M and to live in Bogota.)
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To: Trust but Verify

Muslim democracy = crack pot idea

The only functioning Muslim countries are the ones with monarchy or dictatorship...

Get with it in Iraq!


18 posted on 08/16/2006 3:45:33 PM PDT by observer5 (It's not a War on Terror - it's a WAR ON STUPIDITY)
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To: Harley69

I hear a loud flushing sound.


19 posted on 08/16/2006 3:47:23 PM PDT by BigFinn
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To: A. Pole
Only the WaPo (or the NYT) would think that creating a welfare dependency 'plantation' could be a good thing.
20 posted on 08/16/2006 3:47:42 PM PDT by BenLurkin ("The entire remedy is with the people." - W. H. Harrison)
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