US Army Blows $6 Billion on Iraqi Infrastructure, Meanwhile in Detroit...

How a country can allow it's own cities to crumble in ruin while wasting hundreds of billions on foreign wars is beyond comprehension. Pictures from The Guardian and Washington Post tell the tale:


Detroit in Ruins

Michigan Central Station

Demise of Iraqi water park illustrates limitations, abuse of U.S. funding program

GALLERY

The Iraq war: A look back

As official combat operations in Iraq draw to a close, here is a look at seven years of key players and critical moments in the war.

» LAUNCH PHOTO GALLERY

By Ernesto Londoño

Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, January 3, 2011; 12:59 AM

BAGHDAD - In the spring of 2008, Gen. David H. Petraeus decided he had spent enough time gazing from his helicopter at an empty and desolate lake on the banks of the Tigris River. He ordered the lake refilled and turned into a water park for all of Baghdad to enjoy.

THIS STORY

• Demise of Iraqi water park illustrates limitations, abuse of U.S. funding program
• Where the money goes

The military doctrine behind the project holds that cash can be as effective as bullets. Under Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq at the time, that principle gained unprecedented emphasis, and it has become a cornerstone of the war effort in Afghanistan, now under Petraeus's command.
But today the Baghdad park is nearly waterless, more than two years after a U.S. military inauguration ceremony that included a marching band and water-scooter rides. Much of the compound is in ruins, swing sets have become piles of twisted steel, and the personal watercraft's engines have been gutted for spare parts.
The troubled history of the venture speaks to the limitations and mishandling of a program that has provided U.S. military commanders with $5 billion for projects in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past six years. The program has given officers enormous flexibility to address urgent needs with few bureaucratic hassles. MORE HERE