Green Warriors: Army Environmental Considerations For Contingency Operationsfrom Planning Through Post-conflict

摘要

"We are in the desert. What does it matter?" We are just passing through and don't have the time." "The locals don't care, so why should we?" We are "replenishing the oil wells." These phrases, uttered by U.S. Soldiers in Iraq referring to dumping both solid and hazardous waste without following appropriate disposal procedures, demonstrate that the Army has not fully embraced an environmental ethic in its contingency operations. In 1992, the Army committed itself to a twenty-first century strategy regarding the environment-to instill an environmental ethic across the Army's operational spectrum. According to the RAND study in Green Warriors, sixteen years later the Army still has not effectively infused environmental considerations into the planning and execution of contingency operations. A summary of the analysis within the RAND study would look eerily similar to the 1970 Earth Day poster with the quote "[w]e have met the enemy and it is us." A reference to the enemy not only refers to both the adverse effects of military operations upon the environment and the ineffectiveness of the armed forces to promote environmentally beneficial projects, but it also refers to the Army as individuals because of the willingness to "reinvent the wheel" and a failure to apply the lessons learned from past operations. Unfortunately, the Army continues marching toward the philosophic axiom of "[t]hose who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" with respect to environmental issues during deployments.