Boring Stuff Like, You Know, Protecting Us

Question: What could the Bush administration have spent 144 billion dollars on, instead of squandering it on a useless, wasteful, and counterproductive war in Iraq? This chart from the New York Times (registration required) outlines just how many ways to actually protect America have been ignored. Things like safeguarding our ports, adding more police officers, protecting airliners from shoulder-fired missiles, and securing weapons-grade nuclear material around the world from theft.

Of course, none of these practical and useful actions would give George W. Bush the opportunity to strut around on an aircraft carrier in a flight suit and claim some weird Oedipal prize from his dad. And none of them would create new business opportunities for Halliburton. Also, none of them would create new terrorists, kill American soldiers by the hundreds, or bog America down in an occupation of a hostile land. So clearly, the war was a much better alternative.