Now this is the kind of military that is worth its weight in gold.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/04/nyregion/a-strategy-for-national-security-focused-on-sustainability.html?src=ISMR_AP_LO_MST_FBA National Security Strategy That Doesn’t Focus on Threats
By JIM DWYER
Published: May 3, 2011
Here’s a proposition: The death of Osama bin Laden brings a moment to talk about something other than threats — not because they don’t exist, but because for the country to see and speak of nothing else is mortally dangerous.
Enlarge This Image
Stephen Morton for The New York Times
Col. Mark Mykleby, a senior advisor on strategy to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Capt. Wayne Porter of the Navy wrote a paper calling on the United States to focus on social policies, education and sustainability.
Related in Opinion
Times Topic: Jim Dwyer
Enlarge This Image
Brendan Hoffman for The New York Times
Capt. Wayne Porter at the Pentagon.
So listen for a moment to two military strategists, working at the highest level of government, as they turn to the subject of leaky air-conditioners in government buildings in New York. “Poorly fitted air-conditioners cost New York City 130 to 180 million dollars a year in extra energy consumption,” one of the strategists, Capt. Wayne Porter of the Navy, said Tuesday. “They generate 370,525 extra tons of carbon dioxide.”
Suppose, he says, you fixed them. And then you got the 40 states that waste the most electricity to match the 10 most efficient. The likely benefits are no surprise — less foreign oil, cost savings, job creation, decreased pollution.
Now follow that thread to “A National Strategic Narrative,” a paper written by Captain Porter and Col. Mark Mykleby of the Marines, which calls on the United States to see that it cannot continue to engage the world primarily with military force, but must do so as a nation powered by the strength of its educational system, social policies, international development and diplomacy, and its commitment to sustainable practices in energy and agriculture. ..............................