"gmw" wrote in message ...
Your argument about the cost, "its only 15 B2 bombers", is fatally flawed.
The cost of the B2 is enormous. It was/is justified by it backers as a
necessary deterrent in a dangerous and unpredictable world. Your personal
opinion non withstanding that argument was sufficiently compelling for a
majority of the population and has become more so in the wake of 9-11.

What argument do you have for a colony that is as equally compelling to the
majority to the majority of Americans? The answer is currently none, which
is why we have bombers instead of bases.

In the mdium term there is no attractive alternative.

Sounds pretty compelling to me.