Terrorist organization wins hearts and minds

Via Sullivan, this NYT piece explains how an Iranian backed Hezbollah is buying off the Lebanese with reconstruction.

In his victory speech on Monday night, Hezbollah’s leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, offered money for “decent and suitable furniture” and a year’s rent on a house to any Lebanese who lost his home in the month-long war.

“Completing the victory,” he said, “can come with reconstruction.”

Sheik Nasrallah said in his speech that “the brothers in the towns and villages will turn to those whose homes are badly damaged and help rebuild them.

“Today is the day to keep up our promises,” he said. “All our brothers will be in your service starting tomorrow.”

They may gotten whupped on militarily, but they're going to win the people of Lebanon, nonetheless. And in a democracy, that buys political power. So Israel fought to install democratically elected state-sponsored terrorists next door. Sounds to me like winning the battle, but losing the war.

Lastly, do I really need to draw the analogy between this:

Hezbollah men also traveled door to door checking on residents and asking them what help they needed.

And our reconstruction of Iraq? It's not just a matter of money: we've spent well over $10,000 US for every one of the 27 million people in Iraq. Could we have leveraged that differently, in a way which made their lives better? We'll never know. We can try to help Lebanon rebuild and compete with the Iranian influence, but let's face it: locally they're going to do better than we can. It's already more personal and better managed than our response to Katrina.