Today's D Brief: Climate crisis and the military; Brit caught spying for Russia; Wagner and war crimes; And a bit more.
By Bradley Peniston, Ben Watson and Tara Copp
August 11, 2021
The D Brief
The climate crisis is already disrupting the U.S. military, and it will get worse, reports Defense One’s Patrick Tucker from an interview with Richard Kidd, deputy assistant defense secretary for environment and energy resilience.
Exhibit A: the record amount of times National Guardsmen are being called upon to help fight wildfires and respond to other climate-related emergencies. “If you track the number of days the National Guard was needed to provide support for civil authorities, last year was the highest year on record,” Kidd said, thanks in part to the response to widespread civil unrest. This year has far fewer protests—yet the Guard is on track to break the record.
Key quote: “There’s an opportunity cost: If equipment and personnel are being used for that, they aren’t doing other things. They aren’t doing the sort of warfighter training that they need to do.”
https://www.defenseone.com/threats/2021/08/the-d-brief-august-11-2021/184441/
