As America mobilizes for the new war: Greens have undermined
US military for years

By Alan Caruba
web posted September 17, 2001

As America begins to mobilize to win the war against terrorism,
the quality and capability of our Armed Forces is going to
become an important priority. For the years of the Clinton-Gore
administration, following the Gulf War, the destruction of our
military was the priority. Helping in that process were the
faceless bureaucrats, many still in place, pledged to
environmentalism at any cost.

"Endangered species has power to halt war training" was the
headline on an article in an October 2000 edition of the
Washington Times. Written by Steve Miller and datelined Fort
Irwin, California, the article began "What may be one of the most
formidable threats to national security today has a craggy face,
scaly arms and, well, he likes a little grass now and then." He
was referring to the desert tortoise.

Soldiers on the Army training center's battlefield were instructed
to call a commander if a desert tortoise crawled out of a hole. At
that point, the entire training exercise would stop. This insanity
has been repeated on every military base in the nation in one
fashion or another.

The US Defense Department oversees and controls 17 million
acres of US land, down from 30 million acres after World War
II. It has been losing the fight for space to train a modern military
for years. When asked about the need for national security, a
spokesman for the Bureau of Land Management (the same one
that shut off water to the farmers of Klamath Valley) was quoted
in the article as saying, "It is not in our purview to make a
determination related to national security. Ours is to make sure
the Endangered Species Act is complied with."

There are hundreds of government employees throughout its
many agencies who are little more than covert agents for the
environmental movement. Their concern is not for national
security, but for the security of an endangered species or some
other environmental mandate that makes it impossible to train
and equip our military to protect our nation at home or on foreign
shores.

The national and international environmental movement-the
Greens-has been engaged in undermining the US military for
years and few have taken notice of it. The Greens represent an
instrument of foreign and domestic Socialist agendas, all of which
are aimed at undermining this nation's economic viability, its
sovereignty, and, its military strength and readiness.

One of the most egregious examples has been the campaign to
force the US military to switch from lead-based ammunition to
that requiring tungsten.

This "Green ammo" was said to be necessary because of the
"environmental threat" of lead bullets and other shells. The bullets
fired from standard issue M-16 rifles have always been made of
lead, as was virtually every other bullet ever fired by our military
going back to the days of the American Revolution.

For several years now, the United States Army has been testing
and considering the overhaul of its ammunition under intense
pressure from the Greens within the Clinton-Gore administration
that did everything in its power to undermine our military. There
is no reason to doubt that they remain in place under the new
Bush administration.

In 1999, Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) pointed out that "The
Clinton-Gore team has bled the military such that the Army is
short $3.5 billion worth of basic ammunition alone."

Rep. Hunter reported that the combined shortages for Marines,
Navy and Air Force had caused "critical shortages of spare
parts, equipment and training." At the time he was saying this,
some 11,000 military personnel were on food stamps! Mission
capability rates, barely two years ago, had fallen below 70%
across the boards for all services.

The Green mandate for tungsten bullets ignored the fact that this
metal costs vastly more than lead, easily twice as much. It also
ignored the fact that the greatest source of this metal is Red
China. For more information about this outrage, you can read
"Army Green Takes On A Whole New Meaning"
(www.americanpolicy.org/more/armygreen.htm) by Peyton
Knight, an article posted on the Internet site of the American
Policy Center.

In May 2000, Insight magazine published an article, "The
Greening of the Military" by Catherine Edwards that should have
initiated hearings in Congress and calls for the total rejection of
the way environmentalists have undermined the military. It noted
that a report by the Cato Institute, issued on the eve of Earth
Day, warned that there was "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."

In 1993, under then-Secretary of Defense, Les Aspin, an Office
of Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Environmental Security
as created. Its mission was to address issues such as
"environmental degradation and the role of the military." The only
thing the military is supposed to degrade is the enemy's ability to
wage war.

The office has been run by a former environmental lawyer, Sherri
Goodman. As recently as last year, the office was bragging
about protecting the environment of military personnel and their
families, despite the fact that many bases have long since fallen
into disrepair. Her office pushed for "environmentally sound
technology and management programs within the Department of
Defense." It actually claimed that, behind the threat of weapons
of mass destruction and terrorism, were "environmental factors."

We all recall how concerned Saddam Hussein was for the
environment when he ordered countless Kuwaiti oil pumps set
ablaze. It created a cloud so black and so big it could be seen
from outer space. To suggest that Saddam, Yassir Arafat,
Osama bin Laden, or any other crazed Middle East despot has
the slightest concern for the environment is typical of the
irrational view Greens have of the real world.

What has occurred, in reality, is the diversion of US military
personnel to undertake environmental projects that have nothing
to do with the security of the United States or our fighting forces
stationed overseas.

In just the few ways enumerated here, we can see how, once
again, the Greens have infiltrated our military establishment, just
as they have done in our nation's schools, and throughout federal
and state government agencies. In every case, they have
instituted programs that will continue to have serious
consequences for our national security and sovereignty.

It is time to identify and root out these enemies of our military
and to rescind the DoD Office of Environmental Security as a
first step toward restoring our nation's ability to wage war
effectively against its enemies at home and abroad.

Alan Caruba is a frequent contributor. He writes a weekly
column, "Warning Signs", posted on the Internet site of The
National Anxiety Center (www.anxietycenter.com/warning.htm).
(c) Alan Caruba, 2001

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