Operation Free: "Climate Change Will Threaten Our Military"

As a full-fledged "geo-green," I have long believed - as Tom Friedman explains - that "combining environmentalism and geopolitics is the most moral and realistic strategy the U.S. could pursue today." For instance, here are a few consequences of our "oil addiction":

[We are] financing both sides of the war on terrorism. We are financing the U.S. armed forces with our tax dollars, and, through our profligate use of energy, we are generating huge windfall profits for Saudi Arabia, Iran and Sudan, where the cash is used to insulate the regimes from any pressure to open up their economies, liberate their women or modernize their schools, and where it ends up instead financing madrassas, mosques and militants fundamentally opposed to the progressive, pluralistic agenda America is trying to promote.

I would add that Iran's windfall profits are being plowed into the country's nuclear program (and if you believe it's only for peaceful purposes, you probably also believe that global warming is caused by sunspots or whatever idiocy du jour is being spouted by the fossil fuel lobby, and you might want to stop reading this blog right about now).

Anyway, the bottom line is that energy and environmental issues such as "oil addiction" and global warming should not only be the concern of environmentalists. These issues should concern all of us, including everyone who cares about U.S. national security. That's why I was so happy earlier today when a friend told me about the launch of Operation Free, a consortium comprised of the Truman National Security Project, VoteVets.org, VetPAC, the National Security Initiative, and many others like Gen. Tony Zinni, Gen. Gordon Sullivan, Admiral T. Joseph Lopez, General Robert Magnus, and Vice Admiral Dennis McGinn. All of these people agree that:

*"Climate Change acts as a ‘Threat Multiplier’ that decreases stability and increases the conflicts that our military will have to be engaged in."
*"Desertification, worsened by climate change, affects 25% of the world’s total surface, and will cause massive refugee and humanitarian crises – that provides breeding grounds for extremist groups."
*"We need to get America running on clean energy."
*"Clean energy reduces our dependence on the foreign oil."
*"Oil ties our hands in foreign policy, funds terrorists, and entangles America with hostile regimes."
*" It’s our patriotic duty to do everything we can to keep our nation safe and secure: clean energy is one of those efforts."

That's why they've launched Operation Free, and that's why "[t]his community of Veterans and national security experts is committed to combating a serious threat to our nation's safety due to an over-reliance on fossil fuels and the major security problems caused by climate change." That's also why, "[i]n the coming months, Operation FREE will be training and deploying hundreds of Veterans, members of Military Families, and national security experts at events to tell their stories and explain why they’re fighting back against energy sources that put us at risk."

With Arctic ice "at its third-lowest ever", we have no more time to waste. We need to get serious climate change legislation passed ASAP. Which is why we need all hands on deck right now, people who care about the environment (including outdoorsmen, hunters and anglers, etc.), about U.S. national security, about the U.S. economy, and "protecting god's creation" (if you're religious). If we can get all these people pressuring Congress to act, we can help push through strong legislation this fall. If not, who knows how long we'll have to wait, how much further past the climate "tipping point" we get, how many more billions of dollars flow to Ahmedinejad et al., how many more conflicts we get sucked into in part because of oil, and how many more times we're tipped into recession because of $140 per barrel oil prices. With the help of groups like Operation Free, I'm hopeful that we can finally get off this treadmill once and for all.

Barack Obama; "Protecting Our Security and Our Values"

A few key lines:

*"my single most important responsibility as President is to keep the American people safe"

*"We know that al Qaeda is actively planning to attack us again. We know that this threat will be with us for a long time, and that we must use all elements of our power to defeat it."

*"I believe with every fiber of my being that in the long run we also cannot keep this country safe unless we enlist the power of our most fundamental values."

*"I have studied the Constitution as a student; I have taught it as a teacher; I have been bound by it as a lawyer and legislator. I took an oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution as Commander-in-Chief, and as a citizen, I know that we must never – ever – turn our back on its enduring principles for expedience sake."

*"We uphold our most cherished values not only because doing so is right, but because it strengthens our country and keeps us safe."

*"...too often – our government made decisions based upon fear rather than foresight, and all too often trimmed facts and evidence to fit ideological predispositions."

*"I know some have argued that brutal methods like water-boarding were necessary to keep us safe. I could not disagree more."

*"...rather than keep us safer, the prison at Guantanamo has weakened American national security"

*"...I can tell you that the wrong answer is to pretend like this problem will go away if we maintain an unsustainable status quo."

*"...we will be ill-served by some of the fear-mongering that emerges whenever we discuss this issue."

*"...we are not going to release anyone if it would endanger our national security, nor will we release detainees within the United States who endanger the American people"

*"...nobody has ever escaped from one of our federal 'supermax' prisons, which hold hundreds of convicted terrorists."

*"...when feasible, we will try those who have violated American criminal laws in federal courts – courts provided for by the United States Constitution."

*"... Nothing would be gained by the release of these photos that matters more than the lives of our young men and women serving in harm’s way."

*"...In all of the areas that I have discussed today, the policies that I have proposed represent a new direction from the last eight years. To protect the American people and our values, we have banned enhanced interrogation techniques. We are closing the prison at Guantanamo. We are reforming Military Commissions, and we will pursue a new legal regime to detain terrorists. We are declassifying more information and embracing more oversight of our actions, and narrowing our use of the State Secrets privilege."

For the complete speech, please click here. Thanks.