(Ken Silva, Headline USA) With World War 3 brewing, the Pentagon announced on Wednesday a new initiative: combating climate change in Africa.
“It’s an issue that our African colleagues raise to us repeatedly in almost every engagement we have overseas,” Maureen Farrell, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for African affairs, said in a DOD article Wednesday.
“We’re focused with our African partners on addressing their environmental and climate security concerns, and we’re integrating climate in how we engage with our partners on training, assistance, our key leader engagements, and then also looking at some of the innovative solutions that our partners are developing on the ground,” she said.
While the Pentagon insisted that climate change is a top priority for Africans, the countries the U.S. does business with apparently beg to differ. For example, the U.S. was booted from Chad earlier this year, in large part because the Defense Department had stopped helping the country’s government fight insurgents. Niger has also been pushing for the U.S. to leave its country, in favor of an increased presence for Russia and China.
But according to the Pentagon, climate change could account for the extremists in Chad and elsewhere in Africa.
“Candidly, these are environments where violent extremists can thrive,” Farrell said in the Pentagon’s Wednesday article, which didn’t mention that the Defense Department has the largest carbon footprint in the world.
“When people, when families, when communities, reach a sense of desperation because of a lack of economic opportunity or agricultural failure or a lack of sustainable water sources, they are more easily lured by some of the offerings from violent extremists,” she said. “Climate-stressed areas are a recruiting opportunity for terrorist groups.”
The Pentagon’s article—which didn’t say how it was helping address climate change—was widely mocked online.
Trump can’t come soon enough
— Greg – Butler PA (@MammothUsa8269) December 12, 2024
“Trump can’t come soon enough,” said Trump supporter Greg Smith.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
