The Lid- Whenever I see media reports that the U.S. military was behind a climate study, I know to approach it with caution. It was a favorite messaging tactic of the Obama administration to defense-wash its political themes, presenting them as if the most trusted brand in American public life – the uniformed military – had made those themes a priority, independent of partisan politics. Such is the reports of a “military” paid study about a rising sea-level.
The “Pentagon,” in the sense of the people in uniform operating our armed forces, doesn’t do that. Its policy priorities are the priorities of the political leadership in the White House. That’s what “civilian control of the military” means.
It means the Pentagon is required to prioritize what the Commander-in-Chief tells it to prioritize. It means that when the Pentagon is spending operating money on renewable energy, and R&D money on climate studies, it’s because that’s what the president wants money spent on.
It’s a good idea to remember that when you see aggregator headlines like this.
Once in a while I check the Weather Channel website for our local forecast, but the headlines on the homepage are almost always ridiculous fear-mongering. They should change their name to the Chicken Little Channel.