Austin American Statesman
Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison and
Senator Dianne Feinstein
May 8, 2003
As the recent military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq have illustrated, the Cold War concept guiding the overseas basing for the U.S. military is obsolete. Yet the number, structure and scope of our overseas bases are still largely aligned for the threat of Soviet aggression.
The process of when, how and why we base troops abroad is in need of a thorough examination to assure that our basing structure is adequate for the new security environment. As chairman and ranking member of the Senate Military Construction Subcommittee, we have proposed legislation to assess every overseas installation.
During the Cold War, our primary military mission was to defend our nation and our allies from the symmetric Soviet threat of aggression, and "boots on the ground" in Europe and Asia allowed us to do just that.
But even though the Cold War has been over for a decade, our nation still has 112,000 troops in Europe, 37,000 in Korea and 45,000 in Japan, largely in installations designed, devised and intended for the threats of an earlier era. Training constraints are evident in many of these bases.
The threats we face today, however, are largely asymmetric, such as terrorists groups or rogue states gaining weapons of mass destruction. Events of the past decade, especially since 9/11, have taught us that we need not only to maintain a military presence abroad, but to be in a position to support contingencies where we have no permanent bases, such as in Kosovo, Afghanistan, Africa, and throughout the Middle East.
In the final analysis, we may need more troops based overseas, not fewer, but clearly the needs are different than they once were, and it is critical that the United States move beyond the Cold War basing concepts.
This is not simply a matter of security - although that is sufficient concern - but also of assuring that taxpayer dollars are well and wisely spent. The Defense Department has requested $174 million for Korea and $284 million for Germany for new military construction next year, a large bill for a model in transition.
Further complicating matters, the Defense Department is preparing for another round of domestic base closures in 2005. As we scrutinize stateside military installations, we must take a look at our worldwide structure as well.
To make sure we get the answers to these questions right, we have introduced bipartisan legislation to create a congressional commission to take an objective and thorough look at our overseas basing structure.
The commission will consider a host of criteria to determine whether our bases are prepared to meet our needs in the 21st century. It will be comprised of national security and foreign affairs experts who will provide a comprehensive analysis of our worldwide base and force structure to the 2005 domestic Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) Commission.
Such a review is timely. Some in the Pentagon have suggested the 2005 BRAC could result in the closure of nearly one out of every four domestic bases. But, if after a careful review, we reduce our overseas presence, we will need stateside bases to station returning troops.
It is senseless to close bases on U.S. soil only to later realize that we made a costly, irrevocable mistake - a painful lesson we learned in the last round of closures.
Our national security strategy is shifting to take on the new threats facing our nation. The position of U.S. troops around the globe must reflect that thinking.
Senator Hutchison is a Republican representing Texas; Senator Feinstein is a Democrat representing California.