The U.S. Military and Environmental Management

Here are two interesting links to Time magazine articles that consider U.S. military participation in environmental management:

1) This article considers the participation of Iraq war veterans in the Gulf Coast oil spill clean-up. It's an illuminating take on how overseas service altered some veterans' environmental ethics.

2) This article examines NATO forces' attempt to save a rare snow leopard in Afghanistan. It reminds me of a number of reports early on during the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan of American zoos raising money to provide relief to Kabul's zoo, which had been ravaged by years of war. Early on, there apparently had even been discussions by U.S. State Department officials to evacuate the animals for their own well-being. By October 13, 2002, according to an article in the Washington Post entitled "Kabul Zoo Struggles Despite Pledges," the Kabul zoo had become a symbol of international efforts by NATO forces and a variety of non-profit wildlife protection organizations to bring benevolence and relief to the Afghan people and their wildlife. Chinese officials donated a planeload of exotic animals as a token of goodwill to the Afghan people despite international protests that the zoo was not equipped to care for anymore animals. As one Italian vet attached to NATO forces put it, "Twenty years ago, this zoo was on a par with European zoos. But now there's no medicine, no equipment. It's quite bad." (European zoos being the model of the idea organization and upkeep for a zoological park.) 

Although it does not attract as much attention as the ongoing military efforts and the politics of occupation, the U.S. and NATO occupation forces (not to mention the private international groups) have amassed an army of civilian, government, and military vets, agricultural experts, and other environmental managers to aid the Afghans in "modernizing" their relationships with the natural world.

About a year ago, I was waiting in Reagan National Airport to fly out to Iowa City, Iowa when I recognized a certain U.S. Senator from Iowa who clearly was waiting for the same flight. Other passengers were casually approaching the Senator, introducing themselves, including a Iowa National Guardsmen who had just returned from Afghanistan. The Senator thanked him for his service and then went on a ten minute lecture about the great work Iowa soldiers were doing in teaching the Afghans the "virtues" of farming wheat instead of opium. Along with American-style government and democracy, we are reminded that American environmental ethics are also being exported to our various wards, despite the very real complexities on the ground.

(Below is a photograph courtesy of Morteza Nikoubazl/Reuters of U.S. Sec. of Agriculture Tom Vilsack holding up produce in Kabul during a January 2010 visit to the country to promote agriculture)