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Pentagon Spokesman Says Climate Change Is As Big A National Security Threat As China
The Federalist ^ | November 16, 2021 | John Lucas

Posted on 11/16/2021 8:27:06 AM PST by Kaslin

The Biden administration’s refusal to distinguish between our principal military adversary and climate change is yet more evidence that the military is following ideology instead of winning our wars.


In a press briefing on November 10, Pentagon spokesman retired Adm. John Kirby gave further evidence of the Biden administration’s incoherent national strategy. He refused to distinguish between China and “climate change” as threats to U.S. national security.

In response to a question of “which is a bigger threat, the climate or China?” Kirby said, “You’ve heard the secretary talk about the climate as a — a real and existential national security threat . . . And we considered China as the number one pacing challenge for the department. Both are equally important. Both are — are challenges that the secretary wants the senior leadership at the Pentagon to be focused on, as well as many others, too.”

Kirby’s answer was a bit of a muddle. He first described China as “the number one pacing threat.” But he then immediately added, “Both are equally important.”

The questioning reporter then sought clarification: “So if you were to rank the two, climate or China, which would be first?”

Kirby could only say, “I think I answered your question.”

Others are more clear-headed. Despite Kirby’s refusal to clarify his comments, President Biden’s director of the Central Intelligence Agency, William Burns, has not hesitated in naming China as our “most significant threat [and] challenge” throughout the foreseeable future and said that “[o]ut-competing China will be key to our national security.”

The outgoing vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff John Hyten was brutally direct in recent comments reported by CNN. “Calling China a pacing threat is a useful term because the pace at which China is moving is stunning,” Hyten told reporters at a Defense Writers Group roundtable last month. “The pace they’re moving and the trajectory they’re on will surpass Russia and the United States if we don’t do something to change it. It will happen. So I think we have to do something.”

Burns’s and Hyten’s warnings are backed up by China’s aggressive military build-up, which leaves no room for doubt that its strategy is one of expansion and aggression. In 2020 the Department of Defense reported to Congress that what “is certain is that the CCP has a strategic end state that it is working towards, which if achieved and its accompanying military modernization left unaddressed, will have serious implications for U.S. national interests and the security of the international rules-based order.”

As part of that modernization, China’s navy has surpassed the U.S. Navy as the world’s largest. Its recent leap ahead of us in the development of a hypersonic nuclear-capable missile sent shockwaves through the military and intelligence communities.

Given the strategic threat posed by China, Kirby’s refusal to distinguish between the threats posed by it and “climate change” raises the question, “Why does Admiral Kirby still have a job?” The answer is because Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Commander-in-Chief Joe Biden approve of what he said.

A Monumental Change in Military Strategy

The American public needs to be aware that the Biden administration’s position, as reflected in Kirby’s refusal to distinguish between our principal military adversary and “climate change,” represents a monumental change in U.S. military strategy. It is yet more evidence that the military is faithfully following the so-called “progressive” agenda instead of sharpening its focus on winning our wars. It is of a piece with Gen. Mark Milley’s focus on “white rage” and his classification of “thousands” of demonstrators at the Capitol on January 6 as domestic enemies who were trying to “overturn the Constitution of the United States of America.”

Under Austin, the Department of Defense has embraced the climate change religion. In October, DOD proclaimed the crisis and stated it would take immediate action to elevate the climate as a national security priority and, among other things, reduce our carbon footprint.

In DOD’s “Climate Adaptation Plan,” Austin attempts to justify the change by claiming that events such as hurricanes and flooding are part of “climate-related extreme weather [that] affects military readiness and drains our resources.” He bows to a Biden executive order that requires the DOD “to prioritize climate change in all our activities and incorporate its security implications into analysis as well as key strategy, planning, and programming documents.”

Assessing the Weather

Now, it is important to note here that assessing the enemy, terrain, and weather has been part of military commanders’ battle planning for centuries. War planning for Norway differs from that for Iraq.

Gen. Dwight Eisenhower’s access to superior weather forecasts was a major part of his ability to achieve tactical battlefield surprise on D-Day, June 6, 1944. Before that, the Duke of Wellington defeated Napoleon at Waterloo by taking advantage of heavy rains that hampered transportation, limited the use of artillery, and forced Napoleon’s Imperial Guard to attack uphill through the mud.

The radical difference in the Biden administration’s approach is its refusal to distinguish between extrinsic factors that should be considered in operational planning, such as terrain, weather, and climate, and rational, strategic actors, such as China, who challenge our national security.

The cause, extent, and effects of “climate change” are the subject of considerable scientific debate. Some believe that man-made “climate change” threatens the very survival of civilization, while others disagree, relying, among other things, on the history of unfulfilled doomsday predictions of a new ice age by 2000, the disappearance of polar ice caps, and cities inundated by rising seas.

General MacArthur’s Charge

On the proper role of the military, Biden and Austin would do well to heed the eloquent charge given to the West Point cadets by Gen. Douglas MacArthur in 1962:

We deal now, not with things of this world alone, but with the illimitable distances and as yet unfathomed mysteries of the universe. . . We are reaching out for a new and boundless frontier. We speak in strange terms: of harnessing the cosmic energy; of making winds and tides work for us . . . of controlling the weather for a more equitable distribution of heat and cold, of rain and shine . . .

And through all this welter of change and development your mission remains fixed, determined, inviolable. It is to win our wars. Everything else in your professional career is but corollary to this vital dedication. All other public purposes, all other public projects, all other public needs, great or small, will find others for their accomplishment; but you are the ones who are trained to fight. Yours is the profession of arms, the will to win, the sure knowledge that in war there is no substitute for victory, that if you lose, the Nation will be destroyed, that the very obsession of your public service must be Duty, Honor, Country.

To the military: Listen to MacArthur. Your mission is to win our wars. All else is a corollary. The survival of the nation depends upon it.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: bs; china; cia; climatechange; dod; douglasmacarthur; dwighteisenhower; ecofascism; joebiden; johnhyten; johnkirby; lloydaustin; militaryreadiness; militarystrategy; navy; pentagon; williamburns
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To: SaxxonWoods
Well, bomb it then.

LOL! They will bomb it with your tax dollars.

21 posted on 11/16/2021 8:48:07 AM PST by FatherofFive (We support Trump. Not the GOP)
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To: Kaslin
General Millie is (way off base) with his Climate Change and wokeness he is pushing on our troops. As a matter of fact it is as if "they" don't want you to know about this (threat to our atmosphere and future space exploration)...cleaning up the junk in space is doable and just might be a "climate changer".
22 posted on 11/16/2021 8:48:10 AM PST by yoe
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To: Kaslin

There is no man made climate change, so quit lying and wasting our time and money.


23 posted on 11/16/2021 8:48:20 AM PST by G Larry (The "Racism" charge is code for "No Intelligent Argument")
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To: moovova

Red China’s response...this is gonna be easier than we though.


24 posted on 11/16/2021 8:53:11 AM PST by crz
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To: moovova

“Thought”


25 posted on 11/16/2021 8:53:42 AM PST by crz
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To: Kaslin

Either they know dang well that they can’t control the weather, or climate, or they are so arrogant that they think they can. Either way they are evil fools who have pushed a lie for so long now that they finally deceived the powers of the world, (and sadly many of their citizens too), into beleiving it, and now it is established policy that is already ruining nations and peoples sovereignty and rights

it is a satanic agenda that I beleive will be used in the end times to force people to take the mark because they won’t be able to buy or sell without the mark, all in the name of “saving mother earth”. No gas, no fuel, no electricity, no food- unless one takes the mark because all are falsely said to “contribute to climage change”.


26 posted on 11/16/2021 8:55:40 AM PST by Bob434
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To: Kaslin

The end of the world, Environmental B$, Started in the 60’s!

https://cei.org/blog/wrong-again-50-years-of-failed-eco-pocalyptic-predictions/


27 posted on 11/16/2021 8:55:41 AM PST by Grampa Dave (Ramp it up!: Reclaim America Movement Party! (RAMP!!!)
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To: crz

😎👍


28 posted on 11/16/2021 8:56:13 AM PST by moovova (I'm dismayed that most of the world hates me for being non-vaxxed. Honest. No, really.)
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To: Kaslin

The Climate Boogeyman is fading.


29 posted on 11/16/2021 8:58:36 AM PST by Huskrrrr (Alinsky, you magnificent Bastard, I read your book!)
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To: EinNYC
Thus sayeth the NEW Pentagon, land of trannies, tutus, and fairies. Where they will issue hormone treatments and nail polish instead of ammo.


30 posted on 11/16/2021 8:58:54 AM PST by bagster ("Even bad men love their mamas".)
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To: Kaslin

Pentagon Spokesman = Obama Bowel Movement


31 posted on 11/16/2021 9:07:45 AM PST by butlerweave
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To: Kaslin
Pentagon Spokesman Says Climate Change Is As Big A National Security Threat As China

So not much?

32 posted on 11/16/2021 9:16:53 AM PST by unixfox (Abolish Slavery, Repeal the 16th Amendment)
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To: Spok
When I was a cop, I this joke about cops: want to really terrify a policeman? Threaten his pension.

That's how they got 'Spermwhale' Whalen to give up his potnas, if you'll recall.


33 posted on 11/16/2021 9:19:30 AM PST by bagster ("Even bad men love their mamas".)
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To: Kaslin

They’ve gone totally libtard nuts 🤪

Sure makes you feel secure huh? 😏


34 posted on 11/16/2021 9:20:58 AM PST by NWFree (Somebody has to say it)
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To: bk1000

“There is no “climate change”. It doesn’t exist.”
There has always been long term changes in climate so it does exist. It just doesn’t respond to human intervention. We through our intelligence and technology from controlling fire to nuclear science have adjusted to whatever changes there have been, and we will do so again.

If we have to wage wars it is unlikely the conditions will be vastly different than in wars past, so it is not a strategic issue, and should not concern the pentagon at all. China definitely should.

Trying to signal climate sensitivity by playing with sustainable jet fuel is a distraction that wastes time and money.


35 posted on 11/16/2021 9:21:11 AM PST by JeanLM (Obama proved melanin is just enough to win elections Trump proves being good is not enough..)
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To: Kaslin

If you believe this, Pentagon hack, then the DoD should be invading China right now to stop their out of control polling of the environment. It suggests that they are an existential threat to all life on earth.


36 posted on 11/16/2021 9:22:22 AM PST by pepsi_junkie (Often wrong, but never in doubt!)
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To: Kaslin

37 posted on 11/16/2021 9:24:59 AM PST by windsorknot
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To: Kaslin

11/13/21

“Pinkerton: Joe Biden and John Kerry’s Green Great Reset Punishes America, Rewards China”

“...You see, COP—the first Conference of the Parties was held in Berlin in 1995–is really about two things: first, the guilt feelings of Westerners; and second, the Great Reset. (Breitbart News has lovingly—okay, not so lovingly—chronicled this Great Reset, first conceived by the founder of the World Economic Forum, Klaus Schwab, the reigning King of Davos.)

These two thoughts—feeling guilty about the last three centuries of Western economic growth, and the desire to Reset the West along progressive lines—are combined in the person of John Kerry, the Biden administration’s climate envoy...”

https://www.breitbart.com/environment/2021/11/13/pinkerton-joe-biden-and-john-kerrys-green-great-reset-punishes-america-rewards-china/


38 posted on 11/16/2021 9:29:14 AM PST by 444Flyer (John 3, Revelation 20, Joshua 24:15, 1 Kings 18:16-39, Pick a side...)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Right!?

How so 5 sided building?

How about planning for the inevitable and leaving me out of it?

You have my tax dollars and I’m starting to seriously doubt your ability to deliver on anything in your charter.

Milly is a Gucci purse with medals.

Just saying.

If you can’t adapt to that which you perceive, then maybe you suck at what you do 5 sided building.


39 posted on 11/16/2021 9:29:47 AM PST by WeaslesRippedMyFlesh
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To: Kaslin

Its time to clean house of these Pentagon queens

40 posted on 11/16/2021 9:32:41 AM PST by Magnum44 (...against all enemies, foreign and domestic...)
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