To the editor:

During the 2008 presidential campaign, in the midst of the financial meltdown, then-Alaska governor Sarah Palin famously stated that you could see Russia from places in Alaska as evidence of her understanding of foreign policy. 

Flash forward almost two years and this countrys economics havent improved all that much, with some of the bailout money going to prop up old industries a la the Soviet Union, most notably the car companies. 

In the interim, in my backyard, there have been water main breaks or close calls galore all around the Beltway, with two recent breaks in Alexandria alone. And the Metro is incident plagued, with several fatal accidents occurring in the last year. 

Roads are inadequate and/or in need of repair, and not just from the potholes that formed after this winters record snowfall. Elsewhere, bridges have fallen down and rail collisions are up. Put simply, our infrastructure is crumbling into Third Worldville and I can see the USSR from my house as the result of our nations continuing domestic policy. 

Karen Ann DeLuca
Alexandria