OH, GET OFF IT - AT 6:41 P.M. ET:  If you're going to be sneaky, don't be obvious about it.  Before World War II, when its budget was up for review in Congress, the Navy would often leak the "news" that Nazi submarines were sighted off the east coast of the United States. 

Apparently, someone has read his history.  Now we find the modern equivalent, as The New York Times reports:

The changing global climate will pose profound strategic challenges to the United States in coming decades, raising the prospect of military intervention to deal with the effects of violent storms, drought, mass migration and pandemics, military and intelligence analysts say.

Such climate-induced crises could topple governments, feed terrorist movements or destabilize entire regions, say the analysts, experts at the Pentagon and intelligence agencies who for the first time are taking a serious look at the national security implications of climate change.

Oh dear, oh dear, it's true.  The sky is indeed falling.  Chicken Little lives, and he has a condo in the Pentagon.

This is ridiculous.

Climate and weather have always been considerations in military planning, as we wrote here when another version of this story surfaced weeks ago.  Weather is often the first item reported in a military briefing, especially an aviation briefing. 

Get this:

A changing climate presents a range of challenges for the military. Many of its critical installations are vulnerable to rising seas and storm surges. In Florida, Homestead Air Force Base was essentially destroyed by Hurricane Andrew in 1992, and Hurricane Ivan badly damaged Naval Air Station Pensacola in 2004. Military planners are studying ways to protect the major naval stations in Norfolk, Va., and San Diego from climate-induced rising seas and severe storms.

Wow!  What a headline.  Read all about it.  Hurricanes did damage! 

Now, what is this really about?  This is what it's about:

This argument could prove a fulcrum for debate in the Senate next month when it takes up climate and energy legislation passed in June by the House.

Lawmakers leading the debate before Congress are only now beginning to make the national security argument for approving the legislation.

Senator John Kerry, the Massachusetts Democrat who is the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee and a leading advocate for the climate legislation, said he hoped to sway Senate skeptics by pressing that issue to pass a meaningful bill.

The term is cap 'n' trade.  You know, if you can't get the bill passed on its merits, and it doesn't have many merits, just make it a national-defense issue.  It's been done many times.

I suspect it will fail this time.  Too obvious.

August 8, 2009