Iraq has cost this country billions of dollars.
Now Iraq's got an idea that might help pay back just a little of that.
Iraq's parliamentary elections were held on Sunday. Under Iraqi law, after the election, political parties have just three days to take down all of their campaign signs, or be fined.
Love that. Love, love, love it. Let's make that the law of this land, too.
For starters, it would rid the landscape of all that obnoxious eye clutter that flaps and flutters from telephone poles for months after the campaign. Seeing them there, shredded and faded, is like seeing the empty Champagne bottles piled in the trash after a New Year's Eve party that everyone would just as soon forget.
On top of that, the law would create a lot of jobs, at least temporary ones. Campaigns and candidates, local, state and federal, would have to spend some of their political loot to clean up their own messes, which means hiring people to take down all those ''vote for me me me'' ads.
And if the candidates don't remove them, then, as in Iraq, they'd be fined. This is my favorite part, transforming some of that campaign moolah into penance money, and using it for tangible, laudable stuff for the public.
How could politicians dare to complain about their eyesore fines when that money they'd raised from corporations and cocktail parties would go to fixing up wrecked streets, or paying someone to look after some poor, elderly bed-bound lady?
[I wonder whether politicians, in their heart of hearts, secretly like the idea of those signs staying up for weeks, or months, or even until the next campaign, keeping their names before the voters on the cheap.]
Thank you, Iraq. I hope we can emulate you. The only catch -- before it can happen, politicians have to vote for it.