The Greening of the Military

0 Comments | Insight on the News, May 22, 2000 | by Catherine Edwards

The Clinton-Gore administration is attempting to make environmental issues into matters of national security so it can use the military to advance the Gore green agenda.

As the 30th annual Earth Day came and went on V.I. Lenin's birthday in late April, the Department of Defense, or DoD, renewed its commitment to address environmental security. While agreeing with the need for effective environmental stewardship and compliance by the military, critics contend that a focus on environmental problems as a national-security threat might jeopardize U.S. military readiness. Its defenders, however, claim that a focus on environmental security will make our troops more effective in preventing international conflict.

A report issued on the eve of Earth Day by the Washington-based Cato Institute argues that there is a high risk that efforts by the Clinton administration to turn environmental issues into a national-security concern will result in the militarization of environmental policy. Will the U.S. military be engaged to commit environmental good deeds on a global scale? Will a militant Uncle Sam be replaced by an armed Smokey Bear?

The United States has been engaged in a nuclear-cleanup project with Russia since the breakup of the Soviet Union that has provided hard cash the Russians have used to develop new weapons systems. Vice President Al Gore has led a U.S. effort to cooperate in the dismantling of Russian ballistic-missile submarines under the Cooperative Threat Reduction Act (see "Loving the Russian Bomb" Dec. 6, 1999). The Cato report cites one Department of Energy official's recognition of Russia's willingness to go along with anything as long as the United States is footing the bill. It also documents that Soviet mismanagement of the environment serves to embarrass Russia to this day, as does the sight of their former enemy, the United States, acting as cleanup crew on their territory.

Former secretary of defense Les Aspin created the Office of Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Environmental Security in 1993. Its mission is to address issues such as "environmental degradation and the role of the military." Former environmental lawyer Sherri Goodman has run this office since that time. She says environmental security is critical to U.S. defense readiness.

Goodman noted in a recent speech that environmental security protects the quality of life of our forces and their families from health and safety hazards where they live and work as they carry out their missions. She listed the top 10 accomplishments of her office, ranging from protecting our people as the most important to advancing innovative and environmentally sound technology and management programs within the DoD.

Are these people serious? Army War College professor Kent Butts describes environmental security as "preventative defense." Environmental issues all over the world are triggers of tension, he tells Insight. "We can allow them to get worse and lead to great conflict or we can be proactive and use those same military facets to solve these problems before they escalate into regional conflicts."

Butts goes on to describe deforestation that he claims occurred in Haiti, leading to soil erosion and failed crops that contributed to destabilization of a society. Butts argues that if the U.S. military had been proactive in helping Haiti with its environmental problems there would not have been a civil conflict requiring U.S. intervention in 1995. Goodman does mention that the unstable political situation on the island also was a factor leading to the Haitian crisis. The United States has been intervening in Haiti to prevent bloodbaths since at least 1915, when we put an occupation force there until 1934.

Butts contends that democratization and regional stability traditionally have been the main tenets of U.S. military operations overseas. "These are American values that as a nation we want to promote internationally" he tells Insight. The War College professor insists environmental issues should undergird both of these principles in our military operations.

The DoD says that as the United States no longer is engaged in the Cold War with Russia, fresh threats to U.S.

national security must be addressed in a new way by our military. "Environmental security is one of the many factors in a post-Cold War world," Deputy Undersecretary of Defense Goodman explains. "Today we are aware of a very serious threat from weapons of mass destruction and terrorism" but behind such threats are environmental factors that lead to tensions such as those caused by chronic water shortages in the Middle East. "Certain countries may have access to water that their neighbors do not" Goodman tells Insight, creating problems with the potential to escalate into a major crisis if deployed U.S. military commanders are not aware of them.

Goodman also wants to advance environmentalism to ensure the safety of U.S. troops abroad. "If the water that they are to drink is not safe, the military needs to know about it and make sure the troops have adequate fresh water and don't suffer because of environmental insufficiencies in other countries" she says. The deputy undersecretary does not say how the U.S. military managed to survive at home and abroad for more than 200 years without an office of environmental security.