The Mises Institute monthly, free with membership
April 1995
Volume 13, Number 4
The Green Pentagon
Justin Raimondo
If you thought the end of the Cold War would mean the death of "defense" socialism, or even
the
shrinking of the massive Pentagon bureaucracy that has been choking off and diverting the
productive sector of the economy since World War II, then think again.
No bureaucracy gives up its power and privileges voluntarily, and in the post-Cold War era
the
military establishment and the arms industry have been dressing up their expenditures to appeal
to the "green" sensibilities of the baby boomer generation.
"What Has Five Sides and Is Turning Green?" asked the New York Times in a
story that
chronicled the transformation of the Pentagon into a politically correct crusader for Mother
Earth.
The military is now officially against global warming as well as for global "democracy."
Pentagon workers, we are told, "will soon be treading on carpets made of natural fibers." For
a
mere $1.2 billion, "trees and green spaces" will dot "the vast parking lots." All the windows will
be replaced with specially tinted ones; automatic sensors will be installed in rest rooms to
conserve water.
Kathleen McGinty, the White House director of environmental policy, claims that the costs
will
be recouped in three years. Aren't they always? "The idea is to save money and gain
environmental benefits all at the same time." This rosy scenario is based on dubious projections
made by those "green" consultants who are profiting from government contracts.
But McGinty's cost-consciousness has to be seen in light of her original proposal, which
included
decorative atriums in the Pentagon's inner courtyards. The idea that was rejected, we are told,
because "atriums would appear extravagant in these tight-budget times."
This is the extent of the new fiscal "austerity" in Washington. When it comes to the
Pentagon: no
new atriums. The extensive renovation involves five phases and tens of thousands of people;
maintaining security alone will bust the budget.
The claim of savings is based on the experience of the Post Office with this "green
technology";
postal officials say that better lighting in their Reno office "helped make the mail sorters there
the
most productive in the Western United States."
Productive compared to what? Why, other postal workers, of course, whose follies and
foibles
have become a metaphor for waste, inefficiency, and sheer laziness.
Of course, it won't save a dime. But that's not the purpose. The greening of the Pentagon is
designed to sell military spending to the baby-boomers, who marched against the Vietnam War
and vowed not to study war no more.
Instead of fighting Communism, the Pentagon and its industrial satellites are battling holes in
the
ozone layer. While U.S. troops police the world from Haiti to Macedonia, the once-anti-war
boomers are made to feel good because the interventions are planned in a giant office building
where they worry about the "Greenhouse Effect."
The bipartisan arms build-up now being pushed through the new Congress, with President
Clinton's support, envisions an American military machine geared up to fight two major wars
simultaneously. But where is the military threat to the United States?
That the Green-Clintonian-GOP coalition is busy pushing what the Times called
"military
spending that the editors of the Whole Earth Catalog might well approve of" illustrates a vital
point made by Old Right journalist and anti-war activist John T. Flynn, in his classic work
As We
Go Marching.
When the fantastic extravagance of FDR and his New Dealers reached the point of no return,
Flynn wrote, "there is always one kind of project that breaks down resistance--which particularly
breaks down resistance among the very conservative groups who are most vocal against
government spending. That is national defense. The one sure and easiest way to command
national assent from all groups is to ask it for national defense."
That's been true for most of this century, but the fiascoes in Haiti and Somalia have begun to
change public perceptions of the military bureaucracy. If the leaders of these tiny countries are
our enemies, we are fighting a menace that no longer exists. By dressing up in the green robes of
anti-capitalist environmentalism, the Pentagon bureaucracy contributes further to its own demise.
Someday, the price of "national defense" will go down, instead of always up and up.
-------------------------------------------
Justin Raimondo is author of Reclaiming the American Right
Back