A Year Later: Hezbollah struggles to achieve goals

For those who missed this piece in McClatchy's (July 13) here.

Even the Iraq war is bedeviling the group: Hopes that Hezbollah could bridge sectarian divisions to become the national emblem of resistance have fallen victim to Sunni-Shiite Muslim tensions worsened by the civil strife nearby.

"The problem is that society and politics are so deeply polarized now that no matter what (Nasrallah) or Hezbollah have been trying to do in terms of mending fences with their rivals — the Sunnis and so on — it has not worked because of very high levels of sectarianism," said Amal Saad-Ghorayeb, a Lebanese political analyst who monitors the group. "There was a clear conspiracy to weaken Hezbollah before the war, during the war and after the war."