At Least 100 Bases Said to Be in Line for Closure

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-bases14oct14,1,6226229.story?coll=la-home-headlines

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld is planning to close at least 100 of the nation's 425 military bases — more than in the four previous rounds of base closures combined — beginning in 2005, Pentagon insiders said Monday.

Rumsfeld is expected to submit to the congressional Base Closure and Realignment Commission a plan to shutter as many as one-third of Army bases, one-quarter of Air Force bases and a smaller fraction of Marine Corps and Navy bases, a senior defense official said on condition of anonymity.

Such a proposal would guarantee a political firestorm on Capitol Hill, where members jealously protect the bases in their home states or districts.

Military analyst Loren Thompson reported Rumsfeld's plans in an analysis prepared late last week for defense officials and reporters. Thompson, of the Lexington Institute, an Arlington, Va.-based public policy organization, said the savings are expected to exceed the $66 billion the Pentagon saved during the last decade from previous base closures, but would come at the politically controversial cost of shutting about 25% of the nation's bases.