A billion dollars from the federal government could go a long way toward revitalizing America’s aging infrastructure.  It could provide housing or better water and sewer systems.  It could enhance a transportation network or develop an urban waterfront.  It could provide local jobs.  It could do any or all of these things.  And, in fact, it did.  It just happened to be in the Middle East, not the United States.

The Pentagon awarded $667.2 million in contracts in 2012, and more than $1 billion during Barack Obama’s first term in office for construction projects in largely autocratic Middle Eastern nations, according to figures provided to me by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Middle East District.  (More than $178 million in similar funding is already anticipated for 2013.)

For more on the Mid-East building boom of the Obama years, check out my latest article here.

Photo: U.S. Ambassador to Bahrain Adam Ereli (fourth from left) and other U.S. and Bahraini officials begin a $580 million military construction project during a groundbreaking ceremony at Mina Salman Port.  (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Eric Brown/RELEASED)