Lebanon is suffering under ... rebuilding?!?

Today's USA today article on Lebanon is a lovely example of the sort of thing that makes sense only to journalists and cynics.

The poor Lebanese people are having to suffer from groups of volunteers cleaning up and rebuilding after a major disaster. Gee, that really sucks, eh? Wouldn't want to be doing that sort of thing in our country, now would we? Or in Iraq, for that matter.

Here are some of the horrible things Hezbollah has done to Lebanese, snipped from the article:

"...plans to complete repairs on damaged homes in three months and replace homes that were destroyed within a year. "

"...deployed a force of about 1,000 volunteer engineers, architects and contractors. ... to survey and catalogue damage to homes and businesses in Shiite areas that Israel bombed."

"...distributed $12,000 — almost double Lebanon's $6,200 per-capita income — to each family that had lost a home so they could rent elsewhere for a year. "

"...has hired local contractors to redo bathrooms, fix elevators and replace kitchen appliances."

Of course, I've edited all those comments out of an article whose entire tone is that Hezbollah's only reason for action is to make the Lebanese government look bad.

It reminds me of an article I read back in the 80s when Reagan was bombing Libya. A reporter asked a member of a London group that was hoping to overthrow Qadaffi and take power, why they hated his regime so much. The man said Qadaffi was evil because he had eliminated land speculation and given equal rights to women.

That bastard! Heh.