War & Peace Quote by Ron Kind

“As many will remember” is doing more work than it looks like. Ron Kind isn’t just jogging the audience’s memory; he’s pre-loading consensus. The phrase implies this episode is already settled public record, and anyone who doesn’t recall it is either uninformed or conveniently forgetful. It’s a soft form of pressure: you don’t want to be the person who “doesn’t remember” the scandal.

Then he sharpens the credibility blade with “a respected Army Corps economist.” Not “a critic,” not “an activist,” but an inside expert with institutional legitimacy. Kind borrows that authority to frame the dispute as technocratic malpractice, not partisan disagreement. The subtext is clear: if even their economist blew the whistle, the problem isn’t politics; it’s integrity.

The real accusation lands in the middle: “use of faulty data to justify lock and dam expansion.” “Faulty” suggests more than error; paired with “to justify,” it hints at a predetermined outcome hunting for numbers. Kind is sketching a familiar Washington storyline: big infrastructure projects with powerful constituencies, economic models bent until they sign off, and bureaucratic incentives that reward ribbon-cutting over rigor.

Context matters because lock and dam expansions are rarely neutral. They sit at the intersection of shipping interests, regional development, environmental impact, and federal spending. By invoking a whistleblower, Kind positions himself as the steward of oversight and taxpayer skepticism, while putting project boosters on the defensive: answer the data first, argue the benefits later. It’s a compact, courtroom-style move disguised as a reminder.