Barbara Ehrenreich: The War on Infrastructure

[marmar]

From The Nation:


comment | posted August 6, 2007 (web only)
The War on Infrastructure
Barbara Ehrenreich



More info: This article also appears on Barbara Ehrenreich's blog.

Flanked by a dozen people who lost cars or family members in last week's I-35W bridge collapse, President Bush today declared a "war on infrastructure."

Describing the July steam-pipe explosion in Manhattan and the bridge collapse in Minneapolis as "cowardly attacks on our way of life," he explained that until now, "the war on infrastructure has been largely centered on Iraq, where it has been over 70 percent successful. Today, very few operating bridges, water mains or power grids remain for Iraqis to worry about."

Anticipating the usual caviling, Bush added that the new war is in no way a distraction from the ongoing "war on terror."

"The World Trade Center towers would not have fallen under the force of airplane collisions alone," he said. "The role of faulty construction, which is a code phrase for infrastructure, can no longer be denied."

Ken Pollack, the Brookings Institution's die-hard supporter of the war in Iraq, warned that the war on infrastructure could be as difficult to win as the war on terror. "We'd gotten used to fighting human enemies," he said, "and now we're up against abstract nouns." .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070813/ehrenreich3

[Demeter]

1. Bush Won That War, Started By Reagan, in New Orleans

And we saw just last week, another infrastructure surrendering!

Somebody get a hook, pull that turkey off the public stage....