U.S. combatant commanders make basing decisions without access to cost data.
Evidence
Two recent GAO reports show that both the European and Pacific Commands were making major changes to their basing structures “without the benefit of comprehensive cost information or an analysis of alternatives.” The Pentagon admitted that its combatant commanders, who are responsible for positioning bases and troops and determining the missions of component forces, do not even have access to comprehensive cost data. For some of the most powerful people in the U.S. military and the entire U.S. government (their power often exceeds that of ambassadors and other high-ranking State Department officials), costs simply aren’t part of the decision-making process. — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 809
Two recent GAO reports show that both the European and Pacific Commands were making major changes to their basing structures “without the benefit of comprehensive cost information or an analysis of alternatives.” The Pentagon admitted that its combatant commanders, who are responsible for positioning bases and troops and determining the missions of component forces, do not even have access to comprehensive cost data. For some of the most powerful people in the U.S. military and the entire U.S. government (their power often exceeds that of ambassadors and other high-ranking State Department officials), costs simply aren’t part of the decision-making process. — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 809
Categorization
- DEEPTHINKING: The structural indifference to cost at the apex of military power — where commanders’ power exceeds diplomats’ yet costs play no role in decisions — explains how billions of waste persist.
- XREF: This institutional cost-blindness connects to broader critiques of military budgeting in the base-debate literature.
- corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 809