ARMY ANTIDOTE
Bryan Farrell’s article makes good points in the debate on the War Department’s bogus claim to being green. Our community has five military bases divided among the Army and Air Force. The Pentagon’s local green campaign has been in high gear for at least five years. It has had great success in “green washing” the local war machine in the eyes of much of the environmental community.
Farrell’s article debunks many of the arguments the Army and Air Force employ. For me, the clincher is taking a look at the environmental destructiveness of war itself. After all, the end goal of all this training is getting on the battlefield in the endless “war on terror.” Then all hell breaks loose with devastating, long-term consequences. We have been using a film called Scarred Lands and Wounded Lives: The Environmental Footprint of War as an antidote to the expensive PR campaigns of the Army and Air Force.
Green images are often used in recruiting ads and materials. It is important that the modern war resister stay up to speed on this issue.
Bill Sulzman
Colorado Springs, CO
JUST LIKE US
The immense irony of WIN’s UFPJ “Afghanistan Fact Sheet” was not lost: “Afghanistan still lacks jobs, clean water, food, health care, schools, and electricity.” Hells bells, so does America! The ultimate irony of truth. And while war has kept Afghanistan a third-world country, paying for all these wars is making America into a third-world country. The sad reality is that we are now emerging as a third world nation in the sense of having a dual economy (no middle class) because our corporate/capitalist politicians have exported our middle-class (middle-caste) opportunities elsewhere.
Robert Zani
Tennessee Colony, TX
