Truck and Barter

I have returned to RAND, so I cannot comment on the substance of the charges that, essentially, DoD wants to close the wrong bases.

WASHINGTON - The entire Missouri delegation to Congress demanded Tuesday in a letter and a press briefing that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld release information explaining his decisions to close dozens of military installations around the country, including the 131st Air National Guard Fighter Wing at Lambert Field....

Pentagon officials said they had posted a large amount of information since the weekend on their base closing Web site and also provided the data to the Base Realignment and Closure Commission....

Spokesmen... said that what's missing are "the underlying empirical data justifying the scores" given military installations, as well as cost-benefit analysis for closing specific bases.

Meanwhile, Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich asked that the Pentagon "immediately make all the data materials and computer models ... available for public review."

Let's assume the goal of everyone is to maximize defense capability within a reasonable budget constraint. (Stop laughing). Missouri officials believe that their bases are very important, and add much inframarginal and marginal value to national security, but they don't have independent data to prove it.

Then how exactly did they determine their prior belief that their bases are important? Why can't the public review their data and models and cost-benefit analyses?

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I'm getting tired of reading news stories in which X accuses Y of Z, Y denies Z, and the journalist makes little effort to find out if Z is true, or whether X or Y have solid reasoning and evidence behind them, or a huge personal and financial stake in the matter.