United States wars, wars on the environment

This video says about itself:

8 February 2012

It seems the US military leaves traces everywhere it goes around the globe, even in America. The Defense department is said to be the biggest polluter on the planet and the mess may just be too expensive for the Pentagon to clean up. David Swanson of the Roots Action had his say on the matter when joining RT’s Liz Wahl.

By Ben Armbruster in the USA:

Soaked With Oil Cash, Republicans Block Military’s Push To Use Clean Energy

May 30, 2012 at 3:03 pm

The Pentagon wants to move toward a greener military, one that relies more on renewable energy and less on fossil fuels. Why? It would save lives. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey made that case last October and a recent Army study found that “[a] fighting force that isn’t restricted by the reach of a tanker truck or weighted down by heavy batteries is more nimble and, as a result, more lethal.”

So in theory, Congress should have no problem passing legislation to provide the funds to make this a reality. However, there are a few hurdles standing in the way: Republicans. The House GOP included a measure in the defense authorization bill this month prohibiting the Defense Department from buying alternative fuels if they cost more than “traditional fossil fuel.” And the Senate Armed Services Committee last week followed suit with an “even tougher” provision mirroring the House version but also exempts DOD from clean energy standards.

Why are the Republicans doing this? VoteVets.org chairman Jon Soltz pointed out yesterday that they get a lot of money from the oil and gas industry:

In short, Republicans would be forcing the military to go back to using the same fuels that hampered it from doing its job — and the same fuels that have resulted in the deaths of so many Americans.

Why? That’s the question that must be asked. And the answer is pretty simple. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Oil and Gas interests have donated 88 percent of their political contributions to Republicans this cycle — nearly $18 million. That’s the highest percentage they’ve given to Republicans since at least 1990.

And, boy, are Republicans delivering for them. Even if it means forcing the Pentagon to stop developing programs that could make our military more effective. Even if it means banning programs that would save the lives of our troops. There is nothing, it seems, that they value more than delivering for their dirty oil campaign donors.

Environmental effects of warfare: here.

US Republican Romney the corporate raider: here.

10 thoughts on “United States wars, wars on the environment”

I agree that armies and the military cause extensive environmental damage. However, I doubt that the US Military is the largest polluter. I consulted with a firm that designed a robot that could go into abandoned weapons caches to remove old rusting shells and other forms of ordinance. Their largest business opportunity was in the former Soviet Republic. The environmental damage caused by the Soviet Bloc is staggering. You just don’t read about it because the Russian press has been muzzled.

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petrel41 on June 1, 2012 at 11:36 am said:

Hi Richard, I agree with you that the armed forces, formerly of the Soviet Union, now of the Russian Federation, have caused and still cause much environmental damage.

However, is that more than what the US armed forces did and do? If one presumes that there is roughly a correlation between military expenses and military environmental damage, then one should know

“The USA’s military spending accounted for 41 per cent of the world total in 2011, followed by China with 8.2 per cent, Russia with 4.1%”.

Source:

http://www.sipri.org/research/armaments/milex/resultoutput/trends

So, Russian military expenses are about a tenth of US military expenses. Let us presume for the sake of argument that the Russian armed forces pollute twice as much per dollar expended than their US counterparts. That would still make total US military pollution five times more than Russian military pollution.

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