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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Vision of Rebuilding Lebanon Wanes |
| 2007-01-22 |
| In August, Mohammed al-Seyed watched with some pride as tractors driven by Hezbollah men rolled in to begin scooping away the rubble and debris of a month of war with Israel, while engineers and others set to work. This Hezbollah stronghold would soon rise again, the leaders of both the town and the militant group’s building arm, Construction Jihad, said defiantly. More than five months later, however, with winter here and Lebanon’s government enmeshed in political crisis, the tractors are gone, the army of men has disappeared and Bint Jbail’s town center still resembles Dresden after World War II. “They told us everything was going to be rebuilt soon,” Mr. Seyed said Tuesday, speaking of town leaders. “They’re not doing anything now. We want to build but they won’t let us. They promise to pay us, but they don’t. All we want is our homes back and they won’t even let us have them!” There may be as many excuses for the slowdown in rebuilding in the south as there are political factions in this nation. Some people blame the weather; some say residents living abroad are just taking their time; some officials cite disagreements over the amounts paid to those who have lost their homes. In one rare admission, a senior Construction Jihad official said his group was overwhelmed by the destruction. “Our goal initially was to work with our own hands, but we soon realized we weren’t enough, so we decided to begin reimbursing people,” said Abou Ali Bayloun, regional director for Construction Jihad in the southern port town of Tyre. “It is natural that the workers in the area will not be enough in the area. It needs a lot of workers to do this.” |
| Posted by:ryuge |
| #9 Beit means "bath" in Arabic and Turk. Sounds like a good place for a US missile base. After a hard day of targeting Arab terror centers, operatives could use a hot bath and rub down by lovely Arab houris. |
| Posted by: Sneaze Shaiting3550 2007-01-22 19:49 |
| #8 The analogy still stands, the devil is in the details. Take your choice: any and all, surgery, chemo, radiation. Whatever is done, it will not be pleasant, but it will be necessary. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2007-01-22 16:42 |
| #7 But surgery is always the necessary first step, Glenmore. ;-) |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2007-01-22 15:06 |
| #6 AP Metastatic cancers are generally susceptible only to chemo or radiation therapy. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2007-01-22 09:59 |
| #5 Lebanon has a metastasized cancer growing within it called Hizb'Allah. Nothing will happen until the cancer is removed. End of story. The Israelis had the chance to envelop Hizb'Allah and they failed to carry out their plan. But the task still has to be done. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2007-01-22 09:43 |
| #4 Mohammed thought that there's no price to killing Jews? |
| Posted by: gromgoru 2007-01-22 09:35 |
| #3 Reconstruction of Lebanon sounds an awful lot like reconstruction of New Orleans. And equally worthwhile. It's so hard to decide which should be completed first. |
| Posted by: Ehud Olmert 2007-01-22 08:34 |
| #2 The town — which has 6,000 full-time residents and almost 30,000 living abroad, most in the United States ...What's wrong with THIS picture?... Mike |
| Posted by: Mike Kozlowski 2007-01-22 08:29 |
| #1 Reconstruction of Lebanon sounds an awful lot like reconstruction of New Orleans. "We want to build but they wonÂ’t let us." 'politics is at the heart of the problem.' 'accuse the government of adding red tape' 'political wrangling... has raised |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2007-01-22 07:49 |