Iraq, Bridges and the Future

The Geek is feeling good. He has just received an ego stroke. It wasn't the intention of the two men at the Brookings Institute, but that was the result nonetheless.

Brookings released a study concerning the results of the recently concluded troop surge in Iraq. The conclusion was that the surge is working at least in the area of security. This means that the two gents at the think tank with all their expertise and access to sources denied the Geek have come to the same conclusion as the Geek.

In earlier posts the Geek has argued that success in counterinsurgency depends on the presence of boots on the ground. He has concluded based on history and a handful of vital and meaningful indicators that the increase of US troops in the past few months coupled with an improvement in the efficiency of Iraqi forces and better thinking on the part of local US commanders has brought about measurable improvement in our position in Iraq.

Not surprisingly critics of the war either ignored the Brookings report or scoffed at it. Leader of the scoffers is John Murtha who is also a very outspoken critic of the war. He simply overlooked that the report focused on the security portion of the Iraqi dilemma and he talked about the absence of infrastructure improvements. He noted correctly that electrical service in Baghdad is sporadic, generally being limited to two hours a day. He also properly pointed out the lack of clean water in many areas of the country, the slow return of oil facilities to full service, and other important deficiencies in the nation building department.

Murtha is bang on regarding the problems of nation building. He is also right when he alludes to the need for effective infrastructure if Iraq is going to emerge as a going concern.

He is right. But, his view is irrelevant. The fundamental requirement for nation building is an absence of wide spread violence. To build a nation, to construct and maintain all the components of a vital national physical plant, the first requirement is peace. It's hard to build an electrical plant, run an oil refinery, operate a municipal water system or provide educational and health services when truck bombers, roadside mines, snipers, saboteurs and death squads litter the landscape with bodies and ruins.

Get a grip, Representative Murtha. The Brookings boys focused on the prime target--the lowering of violence in Iraq. When that job is accomplished, and only then, can the real, substantial challenges of nation building be addressed with any remote likelihood of success.

Many politicians, journalists, and bloggers have been dilating on the collapse of the I-35 West bridge in Minneapolis. A major thrust beloved by many has been the linkage of this one incident to the deterioration of much of America's stock of bridges. The point is well taken.

The pressing problem presented by the backlog of scheduled maintenance for many components of the critical physical plant of the nation including bridges, roads, electrical grids, sewer systems, water systems and the like was raised thirty years ago. It has reemerged from time to time ever since.

The collapse of the I-35 bridge is simply the latest knock by catastrophe on the door of our collective consciousness. It is well for the knock to be amplified by journalists and politicians alike.

However, the Geek has noted with a lemon-sucking expression that all too many of the viewers-with-alarm connect the erosion of our infrastructure with the costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. They are wrong. Wrong as a soup sandwich.

There are several reasons why they are wrong. The first is self-evident. Officials at all levels of government have been aware for more than a generation now that our collective physical plant is falling down all around us. These officials have known but made the choice to continue to defer critical maintenance, to put money into new construction instead of repairs, to keep taxes low, in short, to run risks.

The second reason runs in tandem with the first. We the People (or at least the less unaware among us) have known about the decay of our infrastructure. We the People have supported, even demanded of our elected officials that they build new highways rather than fix the old, that they keep taxes low even if it means risks. The old Vox Populi has spoken loud and clear.

After all, the risks for any one of us of being on the bridge when gravity wins is very, very low. But, the costs of increased taxes are right here, right now. The likelihood of any one among us of dying from a waterborne disease because the water plant has packed it in or the crap has overflowed from the sewers is very, very low. The costs of taxes are again, right here, right now.

It strikes the Geek as more than a little hypocritical to scream now, more than a generation after the problems were first brought to our collective attention, that bridges are crashing all over the country because of the war in Iraq. If the charge is not simple hypocrisy, than it is something far worse.

Base exploitation of an undeniable tragedy for political gain.

Hell. If those who blame the war in Iraq for sucking away the money needed for infrastructure repair are really so worried, why don't they suggest taking the money from some other segment of the Federal budget?

They might demand that more of the bloated Highway Trust Fund, which takes a good chunk out of all our pockets every time we pump a gallon of gas, be earmarked for repairs and less for new construction. Remember that the HTF money is there. It can be spent to fix bridges as well as potholes.

The hand-wringers might even demand that money be removed from the totally out of control Agricultural Subsidies bill recently passed by Congress. Just taking a couple of billions out would fix a lot of collapsible bridges and still leave oodles of boodle for agribusinessmen.

The Geek could go on, but he won't. You get the idea, the money is there in bins far removed from the war in Iraq. If we have the political will, it can be redirected.

Remember, if we lose in Iraq, the future will hold a lot more deaths and destruction than that inflicted either by the collapse of the I-35 bridge or the events of 9/11. Unless we want our future to consist of living in fear, huddled in a garrison state, we have to keep on in Iraq. We may not win. We must not lose.

Our future demands it.

And, perhaps soon, a couple of bright lads at some think tank will agree with the Geek. It's happened once. It could happen again.