GONE TO HELL

Highways and bridges…

GONE TO HELL.

Schools…

GONE TO HELL.

An economy…

GONE TO China.

A war…

GONE TO HELL.

A Constitution…

GONE TO HELL.

HOW?

WHY?

WHO?

"Our fervent pursuit of war with Iraq is driving us to squander the international legitimacy that has been America's most potent weapon. We have begun to dismantle the largest and most effective web of international relationships the world has ever known. Our current course will bring instability and danger, not security. We have not seen such systematic distortion of intelligence, such systematic manipulation of American opinion, since the war in Vietnam."

John Brady Kiesling

Diplomat who resigned his post at the U.S. embassy in Greece on February 27, 2003

"Mr. Secretary, I have enormous respect for your character and ability. You have preserved more international credibility for us than our policy deserves, and salvaged something positive from the excesses of an ideological and self-serving Administration. But your loyalty to the President goes too far."

John Brady Kiesling

“There are many costs that come when our leaders divert $2 billion every ten days to occupy a distant land. The first of these is human. Wars cost lives in a war zone, but they also dry up the funding that could save lives on the home front. By drawing resources away from vital social and economic development projects at home -- and maintaining a safe and functional infrastructure is essential to progress on both fronts -- an obsessive focus on warmaking abroad leaves a trail of death, destruction and decay in the U.S.”

“Writing of federal "negligence" when it comes to infrastructure repair, the Star-Tribune's Coleman observed, "A trillion spent in Iraq, while schools crumble, there aren't enough cops on the street and bridges decay while our leaders cross their fingers and ignore the rising chances of disaster.”

From Broken Bridges, Lost Levees and a Brutal Culture of Neglect

By John Nichols

www.thenation.com

August 2, 2007