Nation-building doesn't begin at home

[unhappycamper]

http://atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/NK20Aa01.html




Nation-building doesn't begin at home
By Nick Turse
Nov 20, 2012

~snip~

In the final days of the presidential campaign, President Obama repeatedly assured Americans that it was time to reap a peace dividend as America's wars wind down. Nation-building here at home should, he insisted, be put on the agenda: "What we can now do is free up some resources, to, for example, put Americans back to work, especially our veterans, rebuilding our roads, our bridges."

Setting aside just how slipshod or even downright disastrous Washington's last decade of nation-building projects in Iraq and Afghanistan have been, the president's proposal to rebuild roads, upgrade bridges, and retrofit the country's electrical grid sounds eminently sensible. After all, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) gives America's infrastructure a grade of "D". If, in the era of the $800 billion stimulus package, $1 billion at first sounds paltry, ask the mayors of Detroit, Belmar, New Jersey, or even New York City what that money would mean to their municipalities. America may need $2.2 trillion in repairs and maintenance according to ASCE, but $1 billion could radically change the fortunes of many a city.

Instead, that money is flowing into the oil-rich Middle East. Unknown to most Americans, thousands of State Department personnel, military advisors, and hired contractors remain at several large civilian bases in Iraq where nation-building projects are ongoing; hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars have been flowing into military construction projects in repressive Persian Gulf states like Bahrain and Qatar; and the Pentagon is expanding its construction program in Central Asia. All of this adds up to a multifaceted project that seems at odds with the president's rhetoric. (The White House did not respond to TomDispatch's repeated requests for comment.)

~snip~

In 2012, with American cities in desperate need of reconstruction dollars, the US military out of Iraq, and the war in Afghanistan winding down, Mideast construction contracts ballooned to new Obama-era heights. Even as the president talks about lessening America's footprint abroad, the Pentagon is quietly digging in and expanding out. While countless municipalities affected by superstorm Sandy ask for reconstruction funds, taxpayer dollars dedicated to building transportation infrastructure and water treatment plants are headed halfway around the world.

[Tigress DEM]

1. Govenors refused stimulus money and the Pentagon has it's own budget which has been a sacred cow.

SO to say that Obama is any part of redirecting money to the Middle East that is meant for US reconstruction without showing any proof that these funds were already tagged for that purpose is slipshod reporting.

The "Asia Times" might be a bit Pro-Romney with a small incentive. Now that he won't be President he'll need to do business somewhere.

This is probably more of the "we broke it - we're fixing it" obligations we incurred by going there and blowing shit up in the first place.