Ask the Naval Sea Systems Command a question about the Portsmouth Yard (public), the Groton Electric Boat works (General Dynamics), the Norfork Yard (public), the Los Angeles class boats and their maintenance, early retirement or extension, anything related to cost and benefit, and NSSC answers: “It’s inappropriate to respond to your query regarding BRAC issues.” That makes intelligent policy evaluation, independent of the fleet of 1 year MacJobbers working for a Bush appointee and some political overhang who are working for the Executive Branch, not the Legislative Branch (either the point of the whole exericse, or a distinction without difference), a triffle harder than it needs to be.
Foster's Daily Democrat is doing a good job of coverage inspite of the attitude shown by the NSSC (that better CNOs have sent the equivalents to the Great Lakes Training Command in an afternoon). If there is an '08 or '12 capable candidate who doesn't have a sub to Foster's, its probably because he or she doesn't intend to be competitive in Rockingham and Hillsborough counties.
When you stand in a kayak you can see differently. The risk is obvious. Is Rumsfeld's vision of a light, agile military, that serves no deterrence purpose and is incapable of contesting symmetric forces, in which the Navy serves a supporting, non-diplomatic purpose of close-shore support for ground forces, a "good idea"?
Leopold II was an interesting military planner. He catapulted the Belgian military into the colonial war line of business in the Congo, the direction Rumsfeld has taken, away from the European forces problem, and being well beyond insane, and had rings of 12 forts around Liege and another nine around Namur, built, to defend Belgium from (a) the Germans in the East, (b) the Dutch in the North, (c) the French in the South, and (d) the English in the West. Because of the delay in reducing the fortresses at Liege and Namur, the Schlieffen Plan's timetable was off-set, which resulted in the delay that allowed Joffre to recover, for d'Espèrey to take command of the Vth Army, and for the First Battle of the Marne to end, not with the capture of Paris, but in trenches and the end of mobile warfare on the Western Front. Donald Rumsfeld's equivalent inadvertent gift to the national defense isn't yet apparent.
I think I'll do a daily Base Realignment and Closure note as the due date for the list draws neigh. What's the worst that could happen? A sharp note from the regime that I'm aiding and abetting the ... Eisenhower and Carter administrations instead of the Reagan administration, like all right minded patriots?
Google keys: BRAC list
Posted by EBW at May 8, 2005 01:47 PM | TrackBack