This little nugget caught my attention during my daily Yahoo News perusal:
Virginia Sen. John W. Warner (R) said that Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and a senior aide improperly manipulated the national base realignment plan announced earlier this year to compel the movement of more than 20,000 defense jobs away from the Washington area.
Two years before the Pentagon revealed its base closing plan May 13, in a stream of memos and internal records, top department officials were saying that “thinning of headquarters in the National Capital Region remains a[n] objective,” according to Warner.
Raymond F. DuBois, Rumsfeld’s principal aide for personnel and organizational planning, guided planners in an April 1, 2004, meeting: “The Secretary of Defense wants to reduce footprint and headcount in the [region] . . . — Moving activities from the [region] is good but moving activities beyond the 100-mile radius of the Pentagon is better,” according to minutes of his remarks cited by Warner.
WaPo via Yahoo (emphasis mine)
Can someone shed some light on this for me? Why would they be spreading out their resources from the nation’s capital?
More below the fold…
Warner, chairman of the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee, said the Defense Department acted improperly by singling out one area of the country for cutbacks. He added that he did not know the reasoning behind the 100-mile limit.
He said Rumsfeld’s team used the base realignment process to achieve other goals, specifically, unrelated real estate management goals. Congress intended the base-closing procedures to focus on one issue: efficiency — or, in Pentagon jargon, “military value.”
“In simple terms, the military value model was rigged,” Warner said, citing a final report in which Pentagon planners adopted criteria that prejudged all leased space as less desirable than owned buildings and the concentration of activities near Washington “as a negative.”
Real Estate Goals? Now I’m really confused. These warmongers have absolutely no respect for human life, contrary to their spin. The soldiers and defense workers are mere pawns in their game and I have to wonder what Rummy’s objective is, because it’s already in motion:
In a blow to the nation’s capital, the base closing commission voted Thursday to shut down the Army’s historic Walter Reed hospital and move about 20,000 defense workers miles away from their offices near the Pentagon.
The AP article gives more details on the base-closure hearing, I recommend checking it out to see the areas that will be hit with even more job losses thanks to Bush’s regime. They really are destroying our country from the inside-out, aren’t they?
Doesn’t it make you feel all warm inside to know that the Secretary of Defense and the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee are feuding? It’s not like they are in the process of conducting a war or anything… <raised eyebrow>
At the beginning of the year when my husband was desperately seeking another contract thru his current employer, we made a lot of trips to NoVA. Most of the available contracts were providing IT support to various military installations. Dozens of ’em, packed within 50 miles of DC. We had to travel another 50 miles away from, say, Quantico or Rockford, MD, before we could find affordable housing.
It’s the law of supply and demand in action. The housing in NoVA isn’t inflated — it’s priced for the market area because there are more people seeking to buy houses than there are houses available… (Aside: My son just made $100K profit selling a house in Alexandria he’d only lived in for 2 years.)
Now, imagine you’re a Captain with a wife and children stationed at Fort Belvoir, just south of Mount Vernon. Average 3BR/2BA house in Woodbridge: $425K. You ain’t gonna be able to do that on an Army salary. So you drive another 20 miles down to King George county where prices average at $350K and you still can’t qualify for a mortgage. And if you could, you couldn’t afford the gas to commute. You end up living in some run-down apt. and griping about it to your superiors. As the Brass sit around bullshitting each other, someone defines the solution as a “Real Estate Goal” and a new catch-phrase is born.
So moving a lot of military installations 100 miles away from DC begins to make sense when you look at the unfairness of the housing market in the area. Move people to areas where they can afford to own and also take the pressure off of NoVA so that housing market comes back into balance. It makes sense, really.
I understand why Warner is crying foul; that’s his job — representing the real estate developers in NoVA and all the support people who depend on those installations to buy groceries in NoVA, etc. Tough for him and Thune; they thought their (R)’s would provide for them. (me laughs up sleeve)
I really don’t think housing costs are the issue. They’re not closing everything within 100 mile radius of San Diego which has one of the most inflated real estate markets in the country.
There are going to be 20,000 pissed off people. They’ll be forced to commute maybe an hour longer to Ft. Belviour or even further if they have to go to Andrews. If people think traffic in the DC area is bad now, just wait until all these people have to drive to work, rather than taking public transportation.
Well learning that the goal is pushing everything out of DC explains why they are closing Walter Reed Hospital. I read that earlier today, and I have to admit, that one had me flummoxed.
It really makes no sense to me; but then again nothing the Bushistas promote ever really does…
there are some base closures that are welcomed. The Concord Naval Weapons Station site is already being eyed by local government and developers as a place for housing, parks, and employment.
I don’t know about the real estate problem, but to close Walter Reed is just wrong at this point. Have you ever been there? It has been kept up. It has emenities that the Army is doing a very good job there. Besides it has historical benefits. When our need for as many beds for our injured, we close this spot down is rediculious! The specialities of said hospital is great, as so in Bethesda. I am afraid they will create yet another problem…however, the site of WR is not the most safe in the world..bs Just off Gerogia Ave. and the like. Have been at WR many times. It is a great place, it really is. There is some research going on there as well. They have a great dialysis unit. When I was there last, they are bulding and remodeling many areas of the hospital area and land around it. Just so very sad, if you ask me.