Money Spent on War vs. Money Spent on Infrastructure

I was reading a news article yesterday in which the (obviously liberal) reported "defended" the Obama administration by saying that even though deficits will climb dramatically under Obama, that deficit spending on infrastructure helped the economy more than money spent on the Iraq war.

Is that true?

Initially, I read the statement without really questioning it.  He was, after all, a news reporter writing a news (not an opinion or commentary) article.  Surely that article had been researched, proofread and re-read by a number of editors and fact-checkers.  

But later in the day, I got to thinking about that comment (which wasn't the point of the whole article, by the way). And the more I thought about it, the more I thought, "That can't really be true, can it?"

It's not like money spent on the war gets sent directly to Iraq and is blown up. Money spent on the Iraq war is money that is for the most part spent here, in the US economy. Weapons and ammunition are manufactured here.  Soldiers pay is mostly deposited in US banks and spent by the solders families here, or by the solders themselves when they return home. Vehicles, food, and other supplies are purchased here in the US and shipped to Iraq for use by the soldiers.  All that money goes back into the US economy. Or a large portion of it, anyway. That is, in essence, how World War II (not FDR's policies) brought us out of the Great Depression.

Much of the money spent on infrastructure stays here in the US, as well.  Think about all the asphalt spent on road construction, for example.  Where does that come from?  From ... uh ... oil, which comes from the Middle East. 

Okay, that was a bad example.

Certainly, the labor that helps create and update our infrastructure helps the US economy.  Many legal and illegal Mexican immigrants work on the crews that build our roads, bridges, railroads, and ..... then they send that money to Mexico ... no wait.  That's a bad example, too.

Let's consider ... Universal Health Care; a process in which the Federal Government becomes the facilitator in taking money out of the hands of working Americans in order to directly benefit non-working Americans as well as immigrants from Mexico and from .... wait a minute.  I guess that's not going to really help the economy, either.

Okay, I need a little help here ...