How about fixing our decaying infrastructure?

by David Grand
February 1, 2006

By the time the Army Corps of Engineers completes its task of building levies sturdy and high enough to withstand Category 5 hurricanes (estimated to take 3 to 5 years), the total bill for reconstructing the Gulf Coast could be pushing $200 billion.

Although personally, I'd be in favor of paving New Orleans over, and moving its people to a place where they wouldn't have to live in dred fear of hurricanes, say, like to Kansas where they'd only have to weather the tornadoes. The town could be called Newer New Orleans, and continue having Mardi Gras parades and jass funerals to make 'em feel more at home.

And we'll be spending nearly half that much in restoring Iraq's dilapidated infrastructure, which we were led to believe would be paid for by its oil revenues. However, that'll never happen as long as the insurgents keep attacking the refineries and oil lines, that's led Iraqis to riot in the streets when gas shot up to 65 cents a gallon at the pumps.

I guess that's the price we're obligated to pay for allied air power systematically destroying much of its infrastructure during the 1990-1991 Persian Gulf War; and with the final air-ground assault on Iraq's cities in the current war causing even more damage. But as Colin Powell warned the president: "You invade Iraq, you own it." Prophetic words, indeed.     

We did basically the same thing on a larger scale following WW 11 under the European Recovery Program (known as the Marshall Plan), in which we provided financial assistance to help rebuild European nations devastated by the war. And when the aid ended in 1952, the program had achieved its immediate and long-term aims of: (1) averting Communist control of Western Europe; (2) raising its Industrial production above prewar levels; and (3) insuring West Germany was independent, rearmed, and its economy restored to its former position as the continent's industrial hub.

The big difference, however, between the money we spent in that rebuilding program and the one in Iraq, is that 70 percent of the $13 billion Congress appropriated for aid under the Marshall Plan was for goods produced in the US. (Fortunately, Halliburton wasn't around back then, and Dick Cheney was only four-years-old, playing Tinkertoy and make believe war games when WW 11 ended.)

But  what sticks in my craw, is that while we're providing Iraq with modern, fully equipped hospitals, hundreds of new schools and free health care for all Iraqis, our hospitals and schools are bursting at the seams, and with 46 million Americans without health insurance.

And the 2004 "report card" from the American Society of Civil Engineers (ACSE) gave a just-above failing grade on our infrastructure, assigning a grade of "D," a slight drop from the "D-plus" it issued in 2000. (Sounds like most of the grades I got in high school.) And they estimated that a total investment of $1.6 trillion will be needed over the next five years to bring the US up to minimum standards.

As the president of ACSE summarized their report: "We need a comprehensive, long-term infrastructure plan, as opposed to our present 'patch and pray' approach."

Let's hope our cornucopia (horn of plenty) still has enough money left in it, after rebuilding the Gulf Coast and Iraq, to attend to the nation's crying needs. (There I go again with my pipe dreams.)