The HMA GUY Journal

On Sunday, 22 Feb 04, Mark Townsend and Paul Harris published an article in The Guardian newspaper. The subject was Now the Pentagon tells Bush: climate change will destroy us. Basically, the article states that there is this secret Pentagon report (no it’s not) that says the world is going to hell in a hand basket all because of global warming. The authors go one to imply that, “we knew that all along.” However, Messrs Townsend and Harris do go on to tell the readers that they have not read the report. They are merely passing on information they have learned through “sources.” Pardon me gentlemen, but that’s not what the report said. Besides, do you often report on second hand sources without confirmation?

Without going into depth regarding the facts surrounding the terms “global warming,” suffice it to say that the Pentagon commissions many reports each year. Just because the report is commissioned and written has little to do with its contents or conclusions. Many of these reports are “what if” documents. The “what if” becomes an intended use for a larger study or war game. The intended use is then de – constructed into use cases for closer studies.

Supposedly, this report was commissioned by noted defense consultant Andrew Marshall. Townsend and Harris go on to state that Marshall has had considerable sway on US military thinking over the past three decades. He was the man behind a sweeping recent review aimed at transforming the American military under Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

My research into Marshall is that he is one the leading lights of the new military transformation using net centric communications and information flow as its center point. His intent is to make the military lighter, faster, and able to control the battlefield through informational over watch. A good idea of the current Administration can get the services to get on the bandwagon.

I return to my initial point. Be careful how you draw conclusions from study papers. Just because a paper is published that describes how the U.S. would respond in the event of a nuclear war does not indicate that our Government endorses nuclear war.

The articles are at these sites http://www.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,12374,1153530,00.html and http://www.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,12374,1153547,00.html.