The estimable radio host and columnist Hugh Hewitt is, alas, dead wrong to suggest that military construction should be used as a targeted tool to help a president’s reelection campaign.

The suggestion in Hewitt’s Aug. 17 Washington Post column amounts to political cynicism writ very large. Yes, lawmakers and the Pentagon should provide the armed services with the military hardware necessary for their missions, to the greatest extent humanly affordable. But the missions, not presidential politics, should drive the decisions.