Hard Lessons: The Iraq Reconstruction Experience

[Surferbeetle]

Well if anyone said that, it needs to be held to rigour! Seems grossly simplistic and misleading to me.

William,

You are much closer to the short/mid-term effects of proposed/ongoing/completed reconstruction in Gaza and Lebanon than I and so I would appreciate your thoughts (and suggested references) on the following:

From Haaretz

Egypt will host an international conference on March 2 to raise funds for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip recovering from the destruction caused by a 22-day Israeli offensive, Egypt's foreign ministry said Friday.

From the Independent and Robert Fisk

Hizbollah has trumped both the UN army and the Lebanese government by pouring hundreds of millions of dollars - most of it almost certainly from Iran - into the wreckage of southern Lebanon and Beirut's destroyed southern suburbs. Its massive new reconstruction effort - free of charge to all those Lebanese whose homes were destroyed or damaged in Israel's ferocious five-week assault on the country - has won the loyalty of even the most disaffected members of the Shia community in Lebanon.

I am keeping my eye out for a comparison of the effects of reconstruction efforts; the RAND Studies are the best that I have found to date...

Best,

Steve