STOP THE MILITARY BASE CHARADE THE ISSUE DESPITE BEING TARGETED FOR CLOSURE, MANY FACILITIES REMAIN OPEN AND FUNCTIONING. OUR OPINION TOUGHER LEGISLATION IS NEEDED TO ENSURE ACCOUNTABILITY.(MAIN)

The effort to reduce the federal expenditure on the military is generally proceeding well: The number of soldiers and support personnel has been reduced dramatically; some new weapons systems have been canceled; and, perhaps most important, scores of unneeded military bases have been closed down.

The fact is, the U.S., for purposes of its defense, didn't need, in this post Cold-War era, the hundreds of military bases that dotted the 50 states. Some had to be closed down and Congress, lacking the backbone to make that decision itself, created a commission to do the politically dirty work for it.

That commission did the job. It came up with a list of more …