Next week marks the first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina hitting, but President Bush would prefer Americans not place too much importance on the date.

Bush says a one-year anniversary "is just that," because rebuilding efforts will take "a long time." The president says the date should be marked by remembering that people suffered, and recommitting to helping them.

Like the war in Iraq, it will no doubt take at least until we get a real leader in office.

While New Orleans languishes nearly a year after Katrina, Nasrallah has already begun to assist Lebanese residents in reconstruction:

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah's grand promises to rebuild Lebanon began to materialize at Shahed High School yesterday, in the form of neat packs of $12,000 in US dollars handed without ceremony to people displaced from their homes.

"I like Hezbollah more and more," said Riyadh Nasser, 53, as he waited in a south Beirut suburb for the money from the Shi'ite Islamist movement. The money is meant to pay for a year's rent and new furniture, until his original home can be rebuilt.

Now, let's be honest here. I'm not sure what Nasrallah's actual level of concern for individuals is and I don't much care. The reality of what's going on is summed up in Riyadh Nasser's statement: "I like Hezbollah more and more."

While Bush controls the wealthiest and most powerful country on Earth he still can't understand what makes people tick -- his inability to understand why protesters in Iraq would be less than happy with the U.S. right now.

In Iraq look at security, electricity, unemployment, lack of housing, schools, clean water etc, and you understand why the Bush/Cheney doctrine is a failure. You understand why Hamas controls Palestine. People like those who help them. Period.