Base Closings Would Transform Military

Base Closings Would Transform Military: "COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - The next round of military base closings will save money by paring the budget. But experts at a seminar here last week said the bigger gain would be in transforming the armed forces into a leaner, meaner tool.
Next May, the Pentagon will issue a list of bases to be closed under a process known as BRAC, for Base Realignment and Closing.
The Pentagon says it has 25 percent more base capacity than it needs. In this round of BRAC, the Pentagon says, every base is on the table.
'BRAC will be the most important thing the Department of Defense will do in 2005 to further transformation,' said former Navy Capt. Kenneth Beeks, now with a nonprofit group called Business Executives for National Security.
'Transformation' is the Pentagon's buzzword for reshaping a military force that was designed to counter a threat that no longer exists - the Soviet Union. Today's challenges come from the likes of the insurgents in Iraq.
The insurgents lack Soviet-style tanks, fighter planes and heavy artillery pi"