Not for a dozen years has the Pentagon been able to close a major military base, even though some of the installations it operates -- at a cost of billions to the taxpayers -- were built to help fend off marauding Indians or troublemaking Redcoats. The reason? Not Pentagon profligacy, for once, but political pork.
Whenever the military moves to shutter a base, the member of Congress in whose district it is located rises in righteous indignation. Given the you- scratch-my-back-and-I'll-scratch-yours philosophy that reigns on Capitol Hill, even such an anachronism as Virginia's moat-encircled Fort Monroe -- built for the War...
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