Colonel (Juan) Cole and the Green Army

Juan Cole

As Europe stands on the cusp of a major new war and China threatening to finally invade Taiwan, our attention rightly turns to military matters. What steps will the US and NATO take to stand down aggression from our adversaries? Is our military fully prepared for the worst? I don't say that as a war-monger, but as one who firmly believes in peace through strength and deterrence.

Unfortunately, we don't have that in abundance these days with an increasingly senile Joe Biden in the White House and people like retired General Lloyd Austin as Secretary of Defence and General Mark Milley as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Everywhere they look, people like Putin, the Chinese, the Iranians, and North Koreans see weakness in the US and Europe.

But there is good news here in the US, from, of all places, Ann Arbor, home of the Fighting Wolverines of the University of Michigan and Chair of the Comedy Department, Juan Cole. In the midst of all this angst, Cole reports that our military, under the leadership of General Austin, is fully engaged in fighting the war on climate. Here is the latest "communique" from Cole's blog, Informed Comment:

"From War on Terror to War on Climate Change: US Army to seek Green Electricity by 2030"

 https://www.juancole.com/2022/02/terror-climate-electricity.html

"The report warns that the drastic changes in our climate that we are inflicting on ourselves by burning gasoline, methane gas and coal will stress the military by causing “energy and water scarcity; damage to installations and infrastructure; displacement of and disruptions to operations, supply chains, and logistics; and imperiled Soldier health through exposure to airborne irritants like smoke and dust, disease vectors, and temperature extremes.”

By the year 2030, electricity, methane gas, and burning gasoline may be the least of our military's problems-if we still have a military by then.

"The Army’s response to these challenges is in part to model climate action, setting these goals:

• Achieve 50% reduction in Army net GHG [greenhouse gas] pollution by 2030, compared to 2005 levels
• Attain net-zero Army GHG emissions by 2050
• Proactively consider the security implications of climate change in strategy, planning, acquisition, supply chain, and programming documents and processes"

Can't you just see it all now? Picture President Roosevelt and the generals huddled in the Situation Room in 1941, in the wake of Pearl Harbor and Hitler's subsequent declaration of war against the US, trying to project what the climate picture would look like in 1945. Do you think the subject of Green Electricity ever came up in those discussions? Do you think the Ukrainian military is concerned about Green Electricity at this moment? How much discussion of climate change do you think there is in Kiev at this moment? Or in Taipei?

"In accordance with the Biden administration’s emphasis on moving to electric vehicles, the Army is urgently greening its transportation: Not counting military vehicles like tanks and armored vehicles, the Army has a lot of passenger cars. It announced a goal of “fielding “an all-electric light-duty non-tactical vehicle fleet by 2027.” That is a short deadline, only five years! It also wants to electrify the tactical vehicles by a few years later."

Yes, Folks: While Russian tanks and hundreds of thousands of Russian soldiers are gathered on the border with Ukraine, our Army is "urgently greening its transportation" while  Colonel Cole proudly waves the American flag. While the Chinese are building artificial islands in the Pacific for their military, our military is working to field an all-electric light-duty, non-tactical vehicle fleet by 2027. 

And what about places like Ft Benning, Ft Leonard Wood, Ft Gordon, and Ft Polk just to name a few? From turning out combat-ready troops, they will be doing this:

"Among the Army’s most ambitious just-announced goals is, “Provide 100% carbon-pollution-free electricity for Army installations’ needs by 2030.”

With carbon-pollution-free forts, who needs soldiers?

And Colonel Cole concludes with this:

"The very security and functioning of Army bases are threatened by the climate crisis. It is indeed an existential crisis. The response will be to be “Army Strong” by going green."

No, Colonel. Any existential threat to our military, bases, vehicles, and soldiers is from our enemies in an increasingly dangerous world. Our enemies are on the move, greatly emboldened by the weakness they see from the current president and our NATO allies. That is the existential threat. Within days, it will be Ukraine, and next year, it will be Poland and the Baltic states (NATO allies, by the way).

It is our enemies that pose the existential threat. Creating a "green" military does not address that threat. The mission of any military is not to create a clean environment. It is to kill the enemy and break things.