Taking an Entrepreneurial Look at BRAC

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With Secretary Rumsfeld stating his case to the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) panel for the closure or consolidation of 33 domestic military installations, it's important to dissect what they're proposing and look at it like -- well, an entrepreneur would.

Having served active-duty, I'm painfully familiar with the outrageous inefficiency of our military, and I applaud this effort to move toward a more well-oiled infrastructure for those who protect and fight for us. Waste is a curse word in the small-business community and consolidation is the only remedy.

However, there is no doubt that moving bases and people around will have a huge effect on local economies -- being that these behemoth relics contribute to the local economies based on their sheer size. But in the long run, these wounded economies will recover, and actually better themselves -- more on this later.

Secretary Rumsfeld said to the nine-member panel: "The current arrangement, designed for the Cold War, must give way to new demands of the war against extremism and other evolving challenges in the world." This hits particularly hard. The Cold War is over, and was 20 years ago. So why do we still have our country equipped to compete with that type of enemy, or competition if you will? Evolution of your competition often means evolution of your ways of staying ahead of them -- this is simple stuff. Competition is often the catalyst, and companion, of innovation -- another favorite word of entrepreneurs.

The initial reports surfaced by the DOD estimate that there are 25% too many military facilities open -- at a cost of billions of dollars a year to taxpayers. And that cost is not for paying the troops and civilians who staff these bases. A lion's share of that wasted money goes to heating/cooling, fixing the roads and mowing the grass of these vast bureaucratic wastelands.