Original: May 10, 2011 Issue 16
By: Elspeth Curtis
Staff Writer
Operation Free aims to protect America with clean energy.
Operation Free is a coalition of Veterans and national security organizations including, The Truman National Security Project, The National Security Initiative, VoteVets, and VetPAC. This coalition is brought together by an issue that many see as a major national security threat: climate change and our dependence on foreign oil.
Operation Free advocates for what seems to be an environmental vision. This vision is to get America running on clean energy. The coalition claims that reducing our dependence on foreign oil is “our patriotic duty.”
A core motivational principle of Operation Free is that “oil ties our hands in foreign policy, funds, terrorists, and entangles America with hostile regimes.” Operation Free wants to educate people on how clean energy and national security are related.
Operation Free lists four main facts in order to strengthen their message. First, the United States consumes much of the world’s oil while controlling very little of it. “The U.S. consumes 25 percent of the world’s oil production but controls less than 3 percent of the supply.” Secondly, “climate change causes tropical storms, like Hurricane Katrina.” Thirdly, “the Long War gets Longer. Climate change creates conditions that will make the “Long War” even longer.” Lastly, the longer it stays dependent on foreign oil, the longer the U.S. will have to fight to protect our energy supplies.
The threats of this issue are numerous. There are “energy security threats” to our military, humanitarian crises, our relationship with Russia, terrorism, oil addiction, our electricity grid, America’s bargaining power, health security, food security, border security and water security.
If you would like to support Operation Free or take action through them, visit them at www.operationfree.net. Their website provides three options; to write a letter, attend an event, or contact one of their chapters. However, these are minor ways to get involved.
Project Free is the coalition’s main project. While it is not in the making yet, “Project FREE must be a national program driven by the president, created with cabinet-level authority, endowed with $30 to $40 billion in funding per year,” wrote Eric Greenberg and Karl Weber. They continued, “it’s about innovations that can free us of foreign oil dependence and conflict, restore the environment by eliminating carbon emissions, make energy cheap and plentiful, and provide an incredible growth and job engine for the American economy.”
To advocate for Project Free go to the main page of their website. It takes you to the “Generation We” website and allows you to join the petition for Project Free.
