Via The Guardian:
The Pentagon will for the first time rank global warming as a destabilising force, adding fuel to conflict and putting US troops at risk around the world, in a major strategy review to be presented to Congress tomorrow. The quadrennial defence review, prepared by the Pentagon to update Congress on its security vision, will direct military planners to keep track of the latest climate science, and to factor global warming into their long term strategic planning.
Not that I expect Republicans to pay attention to the Pentagon anymore. That’s so 2000 – 2008. “Listen to the commanders on the ground” no longer applies in GOP land. From Global Warming to DADT to Gitmo to civilian trials, Republicans are no longer following their own advice when it comes to the military. Steve Benen makes the point:
To be sure, endorsements do not necessarily reflect merit. Obama’s position on any national security issue can enjoy support from the likes of Petraeus, Powell, Mullen, et al, but all of them can be collectively wrong. It’s lazy to think the president is right just because David Petraeus and Colin Powell say he’s right.
But that’s not the point here. McConnell and his Republicans cohorts are reluctant to admit it, and political insiders have been slow to acknowledge it, but what we’re witnessing is exceedingly rare — the Republican establishment openly rejecting the judgment of the military establishment.
And I have to wonder how positioning themselves against the military – a tactic that goes against one of their key allies over the years, and was used as political clout and the final word in most things Republican – plays out for them. Geez, the one thing consistent in the GOP was reverence and acceptance of all things put forth by the top brass. And if the Pentagon is incorporating Climate Change into their strategic planning, how long before Republicans start labeling our military with the same labels resevered for Al Gore.