To hear the politicians and local leaders tell it, closing a military base is about the worst thing you can do to a community. Ever since Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld listed the 180 or so installations he wants shut down next, local anger and fear have simmered. Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman denounced the proposed mothballing of the naval submarine base at Groton as "cruel and unusual punishment," and state officials have churned out stacks of reports disputing the $1.6 billion the Pentagon claims it will save from the move. At Maine's Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, thousands of workers shouting "Take us off...
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