These Base Closings

This isn't the first time there have been wide-scale base closings. While the right loves to look to Bill Clinton and say, "This man destroyed all those bases", they always fail to note that Clinton closed those bases that Dick Cheney under Bush I and Reagan targeted for closure.

So guess who's to blame this time, as well?

Now, I'm not just offering a blanket condemnation of base closures. There are circumstances under which certain bases should be closed. Nor do I think you can just keep a base open simply "because the local economy will die". The latter has happened before and amounts to another form of welfare (which the Reps hate when it's applied to starving children but love-love-loves when it comes to corporations and their pals in the military industrial complex).

My bigger concern is:
1) whether these bases are the right ones to close
2) what happens to these bases then?

Military bases, according to the feds, account for some of the worst "toxic waste" sites in the country. We've got a slew of closed bases that have not been cleaned up since the last round of closures (and before).

If the military - run by the feds - contaminate the land all around those bases, the local economy should not be forced to pay for their cleanup. It's as simple as that.