A Balancing Act

[Richard McMurtry <RICHARD_McMURTRY@compuserve.com>]

The question of balancing "military readiness" against "environmental
responsiveness" requires one to ask the question "military readiness" for
what purpose.

A year or two ago in a meeting of regulators and military environmental
representatives, one of the reps said that we needed to be prepared to
fight wars on two fronts simulataneously and therefore we couldn't afford
to be "hamstrung" with environmental responsibilities. 

In a similar vein, the military explained why they didn't want their
aircraft maintenance vehicles to comply with California air emission
standards. They pointed out that if their california maintenance vehicles
were retrofitted to meet these standards then when they were shipped abroad
or to another non-california base, the mechanics there would not be able to
maintain the vehicles and hence the defense mission would be compromised. 
When asked, why not then apply the most rigorous standards to all their
vehicles - why not simply commit to not polluting anywhere in the world? 
They replied they couldn't afford it. In other words, they would rather
spew forth smog precursors and carcinogenic benzene into an confined air
basin, than spend money to not pollute.

How they figure they are protecting the citizens of the country by
poisoning them is beyond my imagination.

But it points out how their value system is that they can spend billions to
devote enormous resources to weapon systems and troop support but when it
comes to placing a high value on the environment as an integral element of
their mission, they simply can't see it.

For this reason, the Sec of Defense is the last person in the world you
would want to be making decisions about tradeoffs on military preparedness
versus environmental responsiveness.

On the other hand, if one were in a combat situation and someone's life
depended on it, filling out an environmental checklist, for example, would
not be something you could expect anyone to place high value on. But the
number of situations where such a tradeoff is necessary are very few. 

Our national security is more endangered by our disregard for the
environment than any other single facet - other than perhaps unemployment. 
A balancing is needed and we can't rely upon DOD to make that balance.

Richard McMurtry

I think this statement typifies the problem with looking to the military to