Ex-generals: Global warming threatens U.S. security

CNN.Com ^ | April 15, 2007 | AP

[RDTF]

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Global warming poses a "serious threat to America's national security" and the U.S. likely will be dragged into fights over water and other shortages, top retired military leaders warn in a new report.

The report says that in the next 30 to 40 years there will be wars over water, increased hunger instability from worsening disease and rising sea levels and global warming-induced refugees. "The chaos that results can be an incubator of civil strife, genocide and the growth of terrorism," the 35-page report predicts.

"Climate change exacerbates already unstable situations," former U.S. Army chief of staff Gordon Sullivan told Associated Press Radio. "Everybody needs to start paying attention to what's going on. I don't think this is a particularly hard sell in the Pentagon. ... We're paying attention to what those security implications are."

Gen. Anthony "Tony" Zinni, President Bush's former Middle East envoy, says in the report: "It's not hard to make the connection between climate change and instability, or climate change and terrorism."

The report was issued by the Alexandria, Virginia-based, national security think-tank The CNA Corporation and was written by six retired admirals and five retired generals. They warn of a future of rampant disease, water shortages and flooding that will make already dicey areas -- such as the Middle East, Asia and Africa -- even worse.

"Weakened and failing governments, with an already thin margin for survival, foster the conditions for internal conflicts, extremism and movement toward increased authoritarianism and radical ideologies," the report says. "The U.S. will be drawn more frequently into these situations."

[dfwgator]

Oh, geez!

[A_perfect_lady]

Uh huh. Just like the over-population problem was supposed to create a catastrophe in the 1980s... gotcha.

[BlueNgold]

It’s not hard to draw the correlation between climate change and terrorism???
OK, well maybe I’m just dense.
Please, Sir, feel free to elaborate and enlighten.

Anyone else wonder if Zinni is getting a tad senile?

[RightOnline]

Oh how the retired military bigwigs long to remain relevant, even at the expense of riding a loser like Gore’s coat tails.

Pathetic showing, really.

[jwalsh07]

"We will pay for this one way or another," writes Zinni, former commander of U.S. Central Command. "We will pay to reduce greenhouse gas emissions today, and we'll have to take an economic hit of some kind. Or we will pay the price later in military terms. And that will involve human lives. There will be a human toll."

No wonder Al Qaeda and the Taliban took over Afghanistan and were launching attacks against us on this clowns watch. Zinni is a dolt, marine or no marine.

[kinoxi]

Global warming poses a "serious threat to America's national security" and the U.S. likely will be dragged into fights over water and other shortages, top retired military leaders warn in a new report.

The warmer the general climate, the greater the rate of water evaporation from the ocean. This would invariably lead to more rain worldwide and a wetter climate. I learned this basic principle in elementary school.

[Cyclops08]

“Booga! Booga!” (Dances around a fire.)
“Global Warming! We all gonna die!”
(Throws a powder on the fire. It flares up!)
(Falls on ground, screams like Dean and starts shaking)
“Bush’s Fault! Bush’s Fault! Bush’s Fault! Bush’s Fault!”

Announcer: Please give generously to ‘The Slap Sense Into Global Warming Worshipers Fund.” Poor pathetic victims like this will benefit from out expert weightlifters who will beat some common sense back into these losers.
Please help the SSIGWWF.

[familyop]

Yeah, the world should really miss our generation...not!

[Northern Yankee]

The sky is falling, the sky is falling....

[Dale 1]

Old soldiers never die – they just get recycled of CNN. Of the thousands of retired generals, is nice to know that only a couple of them are idiots.

[the final gentleman]

Generals are not complete people.
Their purpose is to obey the dictates of the people and to direct our young men properly in protecting the Republic.

As they age, they become as useless as modern poets.

[kcvl]

Sullivan served as Army Chief of Staff from June 1991 to June 1995.

Gordon R. Sullivan was born September 25, 1937 in Boston, Massachusetts and raised in Quincy. He was commissioned a second lieutenant of Armor and awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree in history from Norwich University in 1959. He holds a Master of Arts degree in political science from the University of New Hampshire. His professional military education includes the U.S. Army Armor School Basic and Advanced Courses, the Command and General Staff College, and the Army War College.

[familyop]

Yes, AuntToenie Zeenie, it’ll probably be 200 degrees in Eye-taly next year. That’s just terrible, but we should be so vain as to believe that we’re doing the sun’s job. Don’t blame mankind. Blame your sun-god.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Oh, Goody! I can’t WAIT until California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico...and most likely Mexico band together and threaten Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio and Canada with Civil War over us not “sharing” our water from The Great Lakes. *Rolleyes*

Who are these washed up “generals” again? ;)

[rlmorel]

This is Scrappleface, right?

Right?

[dighton]

OK, well maybe I’m just dense.

Nope! Zinni’s statement was thoroughly bizarre.

(More comments here.)

[familyop]

LOL! We’re in perpetual draught (not)! The cattle of the movie stars are dying (not again)! ...more “emergency” funding, please!

[okie01]

The warmer the general climate, the greater the rate of water evaporation from the ocean. This would invariably lead to more rain worldwide and a wetter climate. I learned this basic principle in elementary school.

Algore didn't go to elementary school.

He invented elementary school.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

“Sullivan served as Army Chief of Staff from June 1991 to June 1995.”

OMG! His only job was to make sure there were donuts and coffee a-plenty for “Visiting Dignitaries” and that the Flag was raised and lowered at the proper time each day (and you know HIS “Chief to the Chief” was really in charge of all of that anyway, LOL!)

What a pinhead. (And I’m Retired Army.)