Via The Weekly Standard comes this disturbing analysis of Pacific Command's mission:
Navy Admiral Samuel J. Locklear III, in an interview at a Cambridge hotel Friday after he met with scholars at Harvard and Tufts universities, said significant upheaval related to the warming planet “is probably the most likely thing that is going to happen . . . that will cripple the security environment, probably more likely than the other scenarios we all often talk about.’’
“People are surprised sometimes,” he added, describing the reaction to his assessment. “You have the real potential here in the not-too-distant future of nations displaced by rising sea level. [emphasis added]
Are you effing kidding me?
Let me assure the admiral that if we ever need to evacuate entire nations displaced by rising sea levels--which goes on regardless of global warming's effect--that he won't need to rush in amphibs to rescue people as water visibly rises above their heads as we watch with horror from on board our ships. Really, people will have plenty of time to go and it won't require the Navy. I bet we can charter ships and planes. Or people might start moving out decades before they are swamped all on their own.
And it certainly won't happen during his period of command.
Honestly, the statement is so blatantly stupid that I can't imagine our admiral actually believing it except in a very narrow "I think it is less likely that China will start a war, so technically losing a nation to sea rise is 'more likely'" sort of way.
I would also like to remind the admiral that wars sometimes happen not because somebody decided to start one out of the blue, but because some small incident spirals out of control. Is that really less likely than rescuing the people of Tarawa? During your time in command?
It just sounds like blatant sucking up to the White House where such worries pass as strategy. And worse than that, it is just stupid.
Unless Admiral Locklear was ordered to make this statement by his civilian superiors. In which case, I commend him for his ability to salute and follow orders despite the idiocy level so apparent. His is but to do and die of embarrassment, and all that.
And I assure you, the Chinese aren't ever going to believe that we are pivoting to the Pacific and developing Air-Sea Battle doctrine to combat rising sea levels. Indeed, it is an insult to the Chinese for the admiral to dismiss China as a threat scenario he needs to worry about in favor of global warming.
If this is the best salvo our Navy can come up with in the budget battles with the Army and Air Force, I swear to God the Navy deserves to have a shrinking fleet. After all, fewer hulls in the water theoretically reduces the sea water level doesn't it? I mean, if that's really his main worry.
I'm going to go silently weep for our Navy for a bit, now.
