Madness! Madness!

MANIFESTO

As the New York Times reported a year and a half ago,

In the days before the [Iraq] war ... the Pentagon estimated that it would cost about $50 billion. Democratic staff members in Congress largely agreed. Lawrence Lindsey, a White House economic adviser, was a bit more realistic, predicting that the cost could go as high as $200 billion, but President Bush fired him ... for saying so.

Now a mere eighteen months later, the cost of the fiasco is eclipsing $100 billion a year with no end in sight.

I mention this old news because the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials released a report today that states

It would cost at least $140 billion to repair all the nation's bridges if work began immediately, a nationwide safety organization said in a comprehensive report Monday.

Now, I realize that "a billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking about real money," but it sure seems like a no-brainer to pay to restore or replace decrepit bridges that Americans would, you know, actually drive over rather than pay for similar structures (that American armed forces destroyed in the first place) that they don't care about and will never utilize.