Letter to the Editor

I wrote a very snarky letter to the editor re our beloved junior senator Random Paul -- The Boy Who Would Be King -- a couple of weeks ago. I was pretty sure it wouldn't get published -- way too snarky -- but, I didn't save a copy it anywhere, and now it's gone. I am going to continue to write letters to the editor -- I've had a few published over the last few years -- and I think I'm going to write them in Blogger rather than directly on the Herald-Leader site so that I'm sure to have a copy. So here's the latest.

Our senior senator Mitch McConnell has in recent statements continued to deny climate change, despite 97% of climate scientists finding that the evidence for human-caused global warming is overwhelming. I guess that, sadly, it is the new normal for Republicans to ignore and deny any science that is inconvenient for their donors or unpopular with their voter base. But it is surprising to me that McConnell is also ignoring the strident alarm being raised by the US military. In its 2014 Quadrennial Review, the Pentagon states that climate change is real; that it posts a clear and present danger to our troops worldwide; that is a "threat multiplier" and a terrorist incubator; and that we should take urgent action to combat climate change.

So the next time McConnell or other Republicans say that they support our troops, ask them why they are ignoring the Pentagon's recommendations that we address climate change as a urgent matter of national security.

The Pentagon report is available at:
(www.defense.gov/pubs/2014_Quadrennial_Defense_Review.pdf)