ECONOMIC ANALYSIS:

US Military May be Closing Bases at Home, but It's Expanding Abroad

You see, on May 15th, 2005 we learned about the current Base Realignment and Closure 2005 (BRAC) plan. These recommendations would close 33 major bases and realign 29 others out of some 318 major bases in the United States. Actually, the closures were closer to 138; but 33 and 29 sounds better in the spinning, the hyping, and the "Bushing" of the press releases. US troop deployments have a HUGE impact on local economies home (and abroad). Tim Kane, Ph.D., and Garett Jones, Ph.D. analyzed this so very well in Report #05-03 for The Heritage Foundation.

While the announcements hit the local/national media coverage as far as who is losing what and how the locally elected politicians promised to stop it--NIMD (Not In My District)! Our beltway leaders told us that US military presence is contracting and, as a consequence, the base closures/consolidations will save Uncle $ugar big bucks. Think back to the promises of HUGE savings from the "peace dividend"--when the US became the sole remaining global superpower after the breakup of the former Soviet Union. Where is/was it? Remember...there is another side to the coin... there will always be another side to the coin!

The growth of spending may have declined for a brief period, but we managed to spend at least as much in each subsequent year. In the 1989 motion picture "Field of Dreams," Ray Kisella (Kevin Costner) heard; "If you build it, they will come." In the current scenario, "(Battle) Field of Nightmares," we will find ourselves hearing: "If they have come, you must build it."

As fewer and fewer of our service men and women (regular and reservist) are stationed for duty in the US--except for the basic training of the new inductees (excuse me, I meant the new volunteers)--and more and more are deployed for duty abroad around the globe, the locations of our military installations must shift. Home may be where the heart is, but bases, by necessity, are where the troops are!

We find ourselves not only seeing domestic closures, but also facing international expansion as well. Reports of new/expanded facilities are out there--particularly in recent days/ weeks. (I wonder whom Uncle $ugar will choose to construct them, don’t you?) Unfortunately the reporting on this has been limited to the foreign media/press; our own Main Stream Media (MSM) has been too busy covering the Michael Jackson trial, the runaway bride, and the disclosure of the true identity of "Deep Throat."

If you do an internet search for "US military base expansion" (under web, or news), you will learn plenty about this base "outlocating" to the Far East, SouthEast Asia (SEA), Africa, and Afghanistan/the Balkans/MiddleEast (which is now being collectively dubbed SouthWest Asia or SWA). This is the other side of the coin to which I earlier alluded. When the Pentagon closes one door/base, another one will always seem to open somewhere else.

If you have concerns regarding the future of the vacated bases, shipyards, submarine facilities, and sundry military outposts in your state or backyard, not to worry. You need only look to the bigger picture, as do our President, Vice President, and Secretary of Defense.

In the prologue/foreplay to the promised plan for comprehensive domestic energy independence, we learned that government lands (and military facilities) would be made available for exploration, refineries, chemical/ ethanol plants, and nukular generating facilities. How about converting the closing shipyards and submarine/ naval bases into liquid natural gas (LNG) docking portals? And... maybe we could also use another "Deep Throat" to help US/us "follow the money."

I’m Fred Cederholm and I’ve been thinking. You should be thinking, too.