Competing With Hezbollah

This NY Times staff-ed worries about Hezbollah filling a leadership vacuum in southern Lebanon. The paper calls on the US to provide aid to the country to offset Hezbollah’s influence in the reconstruction:

Promises, even the best-intentioned, can’t compete with the visible aid Hezbollah is already delivering, in some cases house to house. Washington’s pledges must be quickly translated into tangible on-the-ground help or Hezbollah will clinch the battle for Lebanese hearts and minds even before the peacekeepers arrive. The American aid bureaucracy proved that it can move quickly after the Asian tsunami of 2004. The same sense of urgency needs to be brought to bear now.

The LA Times reports that Uncle Sam is trying to do just that.