Prometheus 6

Winning the Peace with Hammer and Nails
Now that the shooting has stopped, Hizballah is moving fast to help rebuild southern Lebanon
By ANDREW LEE BUTTERS/BEIRUT

For the past two days, Ali Al Tawil has been trudging around the rubble of Haret Hreik, a Shia neighborhood in southern Beirut, wearing a Hizballah yellow vest and matching baseball cap that says "Jihad of Construction." Armed with only a clipboard, Al Tawil is one of about 1,500 Hizballah civil engineers who have fanned out across the country to survey the damage from over a month of war with Israel. For now, they are simply recording which buildings have been damaged, slightly damaged, or obliterated. More detailed surveys will soon follow to determine what repairs need to be done and what buildings need to be torn down. "Your mind can't comprehend the destruction," said Al Tawil.