Commission to Review Base Closings Plan (Guess the South Really Did Win)

[maxrandb]

http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/B/BASE_CLOSINGS_NORTHEAST?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=customwire.htm

Please check out this article. We are to assume and trust the pretzledent and Rummy when they tell us the Base Reallignment and Closure Commission is not political

I've bolded a few things that made the hair on the back of my head stand-up. But hey, what's the big deal? Surely it couldn't happen here

BOSTON (AP) -- The military may save money with deep cuts at Northeastern bases, critics say, but that would probably come at a cost - an erosion of public support in the region where Americans first took up arms for their new country 230 years ago

If adopted as proposed, the cuts would more deeply stamp America's army as an institution of the South and Midwest - and not of the Northeast, say some analysts and community leaders. They predict weaker backing in wartime, fewer recruits, and strained contractor relations across the region.

It proposed slicing 21,151 Northeastern jobs - 12 percent of the region's remaining defense and civilian personnel at military bases, Defense Department studies indicate. That would be three-quarters of the regional cuts. The Midwest would shed the rest, while 21,598 jobs would go to the South and West.

Analysts generally reject any theory that the Republican administration is taking revenge on the heavily Democratic Northeast for voting for John Kerry in the last presidential election. "I don't see any malicious political intent here - just myopia and shortsightedness," said Richard Kohn, a military historian at the University of North Carolina.

so do we have a Unites States Army, or do we have a Confederate Army?

[msongs]

1. coming soon: US army mostly migrants from Mexico skng citizenship

easy to abuse, easy to swindle, easy to mislead, easily deported for not kowtowing, the illegal immigrants crowd will be offered citizenship for doing the dirty work to protect the rich power structure.

Msongs
www.msongs.com/political-shirts.htm

[JaySherman]

2. Just like the Romans.

And look what happened to them.

[Davis_X_Machina]

3. Enlisted come from all over the country...

...but there is, and always has been, a pronounced southern tilt to the officer corps.

The base decisions will talk about readiness, and operational weather, and what-not, but a lot of it will have to do with flag officers not wanting to spend their lives among people not like them.

[maxrandb]

4. Self-Serving Kick

because I'm extremely concerned that the North won't be able to defend itself, should that tin-foil hat scenario ever become a reality.

I'm also not too thrilled about the money, power and influence of major military bases being concentrated in the South.

[GeorgeGist]

5. When I moved to the south

and was razzed for being a Yankee, I commented "But who won the war" and was quickly corrected by ... "Who said it was over?"

[mainegreen]

6. I think they'll find Maine a tough nut to crack

should they ever turn on us. Maine I beleive has the highest gun ownership rate in the world. Yup, most heavily armed population. Plus they're a crapload of militia around here, and they don't just have guns. I know the 'milita' in my home town out in the Hills had an arsenal that would have made Hamas green (ha-ha) with envy.

[maxrandb]

7. But there's a half-dozen carrier battle groups in Virginia

[mainegreen]

8. Good for bombing

Not so good for holding extremely swampy, bug infested mountainous forestland. They'd be able to take out the coastal cities, but holding the interior would be difficult.

[wli]

9. BRAC = punishing blue states and rewarding red states n/t

[maxrandb]

10. And Congress Will Let Them Get Away with it

as long as the ones getting pork, outnumber the ones giving pork.

On edit: I've decided "I don't give a pork!"

[wli]

12. doubtless the DLC will roll over n/t

[markus]

16. The DLC in large part represents the post-Dixiecrats

It is strongest in the South and the (what do you call them good old boys from southern Ohio and Indianna and Illinois? There was a name back in the 19th century that escapes me at the moment).

They will see this as a good thing.

Of course.

[spuddonna]

11. My mom was just talking about this...

They're closing a base out by the old Pgh airport because there 'wasn't enough space'. But that's a bald faced lie, and whoever commissioned the 'report' on this base knew it. Now the local govt is trying to grab higher ranking military people, to show them the big open area that suurounds the base...

Mom says they aren't holding their breath though. She said, "After all, we went for Kerry... time to be punished!"

:mad:

[markus]

13. I hate to admit it, but I'd had the same paranoid tin-foil feelings

About the Dominionists wanting all the really useful military assets in their safe teritory, should they hever try to actually come out and take over control.

It's probably driven in large part by payback (they were trying to take away Massachusett's assetts when my wife worked on the hill for TK around 1990. It wasn't even new then.

Fine, they want all the damn military crap down south, let the south pay for it.

Actually, I'm rooting for the Pennsylvania case. If they win, and the NG are determined to be under state government control, the next question is: can they be mobalized for duty out of state (or country) withou the state's permission?

Let all them dumb old boys (hey, I'm from Louisiana. That offends you? Tough) all them dumb old boys go to Iraq for their President.,

[maxrandb]

14. The problem with recruiting today

is that the "good ole' boys" aren't going to Iraq for their pretzledent. They're all fighting the "culture war" from the safety of their Freaker parents basement.

Bunch of "one-hand typing chickenhawks".

[Toots]

15. We have a highly politicized Army that listens to Rush Limbaugh daily

How can anyone think that is good?