Nothing wrong with that. At all. But even if Cyber Command doesn't convert from provisional to permanent status, the investments being made and the redirected civic and business leadership position northwest Louisiana for a huge leap into the knowledge-based economy.

Those who have the big picture — 8th Air Force Commander Lt. Gen. Robert Elder and Innovation Center Director Craig Spohn have each met with The Times Editorial Board in recent weeks — leave us with a no-lose scenario. That is, we may be chasing the "wrong" quarry — a cyber warfare command — but for all the right reasons.

Barksdale's missions are important, but the area has many of the assets needed to make this fertile ground for other 21st century opportunities.

n The $50 million Bossier City and Bossier Parish committed to building the Cyber Innovation Center, along with $57 million from the state, will provide the support and facilities necessary for heavy-hitter contractors or startup operations.

(The planned I-20 ramps into the base also can help the case for landing a more conventional training mission at BAFB — Common Battlefield Airmen Training, also known as CBAT. The ramps, for one thing, enhance movement to nearby Camp Minden, facilitating Air Force collaborations with the Louisiana National Guard.)

n The state's Louisiana Optical Network Initiative, a high speed Internet link that connects Louisiana's colleges and universities with the nation's most powerful computers and scientific minds, runs right next to the Cyber Innovation Center. The center actually adds greater worth to LONI, validating further the investment of state dollars.

n From Northwestern State University in Natchitoches to Bossier Parish Community College on the doorstep of the Innovation Center, the chase for Cyber Command has focused higher education's attention on academic areas necessary to support this mission.

Louisiana Tech University, with its partnership with LSU-Baton Rouge, its pioneering work in micromanufacturing and development of a Ruston research park, will provide both resources and an eastern anchor to the I-20 research corridor. But consider that cyber research has added urgency to efforts to add graduate degrees at LSU-Shreveport, particularly getting state clearance for a Ph.D. in bioinformatics.

The presence of a local filmmaking industry had already fed efforts to add animation opportunities at LSUS. But anyone who has played a computer game with sophisticated visual effects can appreciate the military training potential of such technology.

n Likewise, Cyber Command has prompted a public awareness of the need to pursue industries beyond manufacturing, gambling, call centers and other mainstays of the last century. This awareness should further enhance the business climate necessary to leverage our formidable health care industry into more research-based endeavors that attract investors and spin off commercial opportunities, whether through LSU Health Sciences Center or the Biomedical Research Institute.

Keep the pedal down on chasing cyber headquarters for Barksdale; it's an important mission for a base that must eventually transition from being the primary home of an aging B-52 fleet. But with or without the actual command flag flying at BAFB, Cyber Command has led the area down the right path for an economy built for the future.