So, Hezbollah lost, huh, Mr. President?

As shell-shocked Lebanese return to their homes, assuming they still have them, one entity is stepping up to help them rebuild their lives.

No, it isn't the Lebanese government. It isn't the United Nations. It isn't the United States.

The Lebanese people are turning to Hezbollah, who President Bush declared the loser of its war with Israel.

A major reason - in addition to its hard-won reputation as the only Arab force that has fought Israel to a standstill - is that it is already dominating the efforts to rebuild with a torrent of money from oil-rich Iran.

Nehme Tohme, a member of Parliament from the anti-Syrian reform bloc and the country's minister for the displaced, said that he had been told by Hezbollah officials that when the shooting stopped, Iran would provide Hezbollah with an "unlimited budget" for reconstruction.

In his victory speech Monday night, the Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah offered money for "decent and suitable furniture" and a year's rent on a house to any Lebanese who lost his home in the monthlong war.

"Completing the victory," he said, "can come with reconstruction."

If this is defeat, I'd love to know what victory looks like.

Good work, Neocons. Heckuva job, Mr. President. You too, Prime Minister Olmert. You have succeeded in turning a barely-tolerated terrorist group into a relief organization. You have weakened the fledgling democracy in Lebanon, of the sort which you claim to promote, and elevated a gang of thugs backed by Iran to the status of heroes.

And here's the thing, you pack of idiots: this outcome was entirely predictable. On this very blog, I wrote that all Hezbollah had to do to win this war was avoid getting wiped out by the IDF. They did that. But, they didn't stop there. Now, they are presenting themselves as the primary driver of the post-war recovery. What do you have to put up against that? Sorry, but saying that Hezbollah lost doesn't make it so, any more than repeating for the millionth time that "freedom is on the march" in Iraq means that freedom is on the march in Iraq.

How many failure will it take to get Neocons to abandon their insane theories of world domination? Their vision has failed in Iraq. It has failed in Lebanon. That's 0 for 2. How many more will it take?