Voluntary Idiots . . .

Has there ever been such an example of flagrant willful ignorance as this administration? The list is endless, but here's one more recent example. Howling At A Waning Moon, my blog source for all things having to do with the environment (which, if you think about, is all things), has posted this article from the LATimes on an army order to cut environmental protection spending so it can spend wreaking havoc on the environment in Iraq and Afghanistan.

It seems the Pentagon sent an email to commanders around the world ordering them to "take additional risks" by cancelling programs and delaying enforcement of laws related to environmental programs.

Fortunately, someone leaked the internal memo to folks outside, and after reporters jumped all over the story, the army rescinded the orders. At least for the time being, at least on paper, environmental programs will continue to comport with established laws and policies.

Serendipitously, no doubt, at the same time the Army was being exposed for planning to circumvent environmental rules it was showing off prototype alternative-energy vehicles at an airbase up in Alaska. According to this AP report, also posted at Bob Whitson's Howlings site, the open house at Elmendorf Air Base was billed as part of a four-day symposium on military applications of clean-energy technology. But it sounds like just another automotive-industry trade show to me.

I know the argument that goes, "Military investment in new technologies helps advance the economy." But quite frankly, there's a willful hypocracy embedded in a campaign to show off energy-saving military vehicles -- and their promised billion-dollar defense contracts for industries that successfully lobby against environmental standards in the civilian realm -- at the same time that the Army is caught trying to undermine the standards that do exist. Add to that the war lobby's silence on the use and catastrophic effects of depleted uranium and it's hard not to conclude that "military-industrial complex" is a synonym for "voluntary idiots" . . .