Veterans on Tour for Energy Independence

Ten years ago, Robin Eckstein was a college student in Appleton, Wisconsin, struggling to pay her bills with bartending and waitressing jobs. Her credit card debt was mounting. Out of the blue, a National Guard recruiter e-mailed her, offering a free college education in exchange for her military service. She enlisted, and reported for active duty in October 2000. Three years later, she was driving supply trucks across the Iraqi desert.

Eckstein, 33, has been out of the U.S. Army for three years now, but on this frigid Tuesday morning in late March, she finds herself pulling transport duty once more, this time driving a big, blue biodiesel-fueled bus across the state of Ohio, from Columbus to Cincinnati. She is ferrying veterans like herself: Matt Victoriano, an ex-Marine; Rafael Noboa Rivera, a former Army sergeant; and Nick Anderson, a former Army specialist. The foursome is making its way through the Midwest as part of Operation Free, a campaign to promote clean energy organized by a progressive leadership institute called the Truman National Security Project. Operation Free, now in its second year, includes dozens of vets who have logged more than 25,000 miles traveling across 23 states, stopping at union halls, factories, statehouses, and radio stations and making appearances on nightly news programs.

At each stop the veterans get off the bus and share their stories, eyewitness accounts of the ways in which America's dependence on oil affects not only which wars we fight but also our ability to wage war. In their own words, the vets say what many people have said before: America must become energy-independent, invest in renewables, and commit to a future that eradicates the threat of climate change -- not because it's the feel-good thing to do but because this nation's security may depend on it.

These vets' views have become increasingly mainstream, even among national defense experts. James Woolsey, director of central intelligence under President Clinton, is outspoken about the connection between the dollars the United States pays to satisfy its oil addiction and the ordnance lobbed at our troops. "Except for our own Civil War, this is the only war that we have fought where we are paying for both sides," Woolsey has said. "We are paying for these terrorists with our SUVs." And in late April, 33 retired generals and admirals signed an open letter to the leaders of the Senate, stating that "America's billion-dollar-a-day dependence on oil makes us vulnerable to unstable and unfriendly regimes." They called on President Obama and Congress to "enact strong, comprehensive climate and energy legislation to reduce carbon pollution and lead the world in clean energy technology."

http://www.onearth.org/article/patriots-act