He Who Rebuilds, Wins

A quote from a Le Monde article:

Think of the context that arose in the region the day after . . . Everything had to be rebuilt, from roads to buildings, both public and private . . . XXXXX made its men, its building equipment, its businesses available. Thanks to its connections to corrupt political networks, it swept up the tenders and became the true partner for reconstruction. (Translated from the French.)

So who could XXXXX be? Hezbollah, circa 2006, after the Lebanon War? Hamas, circa 2009, after the Gaza War? Nope. The Mafia, circa 1980, after the Naples earthquake. Now Italy is trying to manage reconstruction efforts for the Abruzzi earthquake so as not to repeat the same mistake.

If war is politics by other means, then asymmetric war is corruption by other means.

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