One of the more ill-conceived comments – though it’s hard to choose among the many – made by President Joe Biden is the claim he is going to spend billions of taxpayer dollars to make every military vehicle “climate-friendly.” The word “every” must include tanks, trucks, staff cars, armored personnel carriers, and, well, he said, “every vehicle – I mean it.” No one knows precisely what that means. But the president said it with gusto as he addressed those in the audience at the Earth Day commemoration at Seward Park in Seattle, Washington. It’s true he may have been just chatting up his tree-hugger base. However, on the off chance he was deadly serious, then there are issues to unwrap.
First, when talking about US national security priorities, is America furnishing its brave warriors with the finest warfighting equipment to engage the Chinese, Russians, Iranians, or North Koreans if need be? Has our Pentagon leadership determined based on threat parameters how to meet and defeat these enemies? If the driving requirement for procuring weapons of war is “climate-friendly,” then the priority is wrong and will prove deadly. America’s enemies field their weapons of war designed to kill and defeat us, not be cordial to the weather. Every dollar spent by the Defense Department that does not contribute directly to having the capability to defeat an enemy is wasted. Dollars spent greening up military vehicles do not make them any more lethal or safer.
Second is the pesky detail of sheer quantities and cost. Not so long ago, Liberty Nation reported on the issues attending the Department of Defense’s initiative to replace the approximately 170,000 “non-tactical” cars and trucks with electric vehicles. Now Joe “Call Me Tesla” Biden has upped the ante. Claiming every military vehicle will be friendly to the climate starts to sound like a lot of US military vehicles. With just a quick DuckDuckGo search of the internet, this is what you find. In addition to the non-tactical military vehicles replaced by electric staff cars, vans, busses, pickup trucks, and other conveyances, the following table shows a rough approximation of the total number of non-tactical and tactical warfighting vehicles available to be made climate-friendly. The number is nearly a half-million.
To appreciate the magnitude of the cost the president is levying on the American taxpayers, the 2011 sticker price of the ubiquitous Humvee varied between $160K and $220K. Taking the lower figure but realizing a “climate-friendly” Humvee would carry a premium just to be green plus 12 years of inflation, not included, the price tag for replacing the 161,861 lightly armored vehicles with Biden Buggies would be a cool $25.9 billion. That’s the equivalent of 145 extra fifth-generation F-35 stealth fighters. What about tanks? The latest variation of the M1A-2, out the door with tax, title, delivery charges, and dealer preparation, is $9 million (ammunition extra). Replacing the current inventory of 6,612 US tanks with the current model will run the taxpayer $59.5 billion – for comparison, think four new USS Gerald Ford aircraft carriers and throw in seven of the latest Constellation Class frigates for good measure. The absurd view the US can spend its way to making the chaos of the battlefield kinder to weather patterns gives new and pathologically stupid meaning to the term “greenbacks.”
The lunacy surrounding the ridiculous belief fighting and winning in the violence of warfare and reducing mobile warfighting machinery’s carbon footprint could be used cogently in the same national security policy is breathtaking. Only the climate czar John Kerry hoping Russian President Vladimir Putin would consider the environment as he is killing Ukrainians and destroying their homes, could convey such a thought.
Though it may be the redoubt of last resort and seem scant solace for taxpayers, Congress may be the only adults standing in the way of Biden’s intellectually anemic defense/weather policy. “One of the things I found out as President of the United States, I get to spend a lot of that money,” Biden laughingly boasted to the Seattle audience. “We’re spending billions of dollars to do it,” the president gushed concerning greening military vehicles. But the chief executive is dead wrong about “I get to spend.” Congress authorizes and appropriates what is spent and is there to stop goofball spending by the executive branch. Especially spending designed to make the nation less capable of defending itself.
The views expressed are those of the author and not of any other affiliation.
