EDINBURGH--Iran's President tried his hand at clumsy media manipulation with Mike Wallace Sunday night, but a cannier ploy, were it more widely noticed, seems far more likely to put the Bush administration in an embarassing light. Buried within a Washington Post story about Hezbollah activists shedding their fighter uniforms and becoming relief workers in war-torn Lebanon is this nugget:
In his speech Monday, Nasrallah outlined Hezbollah's reconstruction. Activists would begin work immediately to repair damaged homes and clear the rubble from the hardest-hit villages like Bint Jbeil, Aitaroun and Khiam. For families whose houses were destroyed, a number he estimated at 15,000, Hezbollah would provide money to rent another house for a year as well as buy furniture. An informed source said the group planned to spend $150 million, already provided by Iran, in coming days."
What, no Hezbollah trailers?
"You will not have to ask for anyone's help, you will not have to stand in lines or go anywhere," Nasrallah said. "Of course, we can't wait for the order of the state and the tools that it uses, as it could consume some time."
Half a world away, citizens of the United States, whose homes, families and businesses were destroyed or damaged by floods proximally caused by the negligent actions of the Army Corps of Engineers, are still waiting for the first distribution of billions of dollars from the US government to compensate them for their losses. The money, administered through the Lousiana Recovery Authority's Road Home program, is supposed to start flowing just about a year after the disaster happened.
UPDATE; An NYT story leads with the Hezbollah recovery activity in Lebanon, including an "unlimited budget from Iran".
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