It should not have been unexpected that the New England states will be more severely impacted by the proposed military base closings than states in other regions of the United States. Do the workers who will lose their jobs, or the general public, believe there is no political component in the base-closing proposals by the Department of Defense, subject to final decision by the president?

One only has to look at the political geography of Red Sox country. In Maine our electoral vote count is minuscule and we persist in sending Democrats and liberal Republicans to Washington. So why should the conservative Republican administration of Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld give Maine a break?

Don’t expect it. Politics is hardball and Maine is minor league.

We are told that these decisions are controlled by merit and issues of national defense at home and abroad. That being the case one hopes that all scenarios of possible sneak attacks have been conceived and evaluated and that all necessary defense installations will be in place following the base closings.

While it may well be true that some major defense facilities have a very broad range of capabilities, these are the magnets most vulnerable to terrorist attack by nuclear or conventional bombing. Terrorists will choose and attack targets where and when they can do the most damage in one blow. So it seems to this old vet that the security of the continental United States should not be solely dependent on a small number of major defense facilities.

A policy of geographic diversity and military redundancy would seem to be the most prudent course to follow.

We should not put all our eggs in a few large baskets.

Carle G. Gray

Sullivan