OVERNIGHT DEFENSE: Pentagon sees security threat from climate

THE TOPLINE: Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Monday unveiled a plan to integrate threats from climate change into all defense “plans, operations and training,” signaling a comprehensive effort to tackle global warming. 

Hagel unveiled the 20-page Climate Change Adaptation Roadmap on Monday, a blueprint for the department.

{mosads}”Among the future trends that will impact our national security is climate change,” he wrote in the report.

The report calls climate change a “threat multiplier” with the power to “exacerbate” many of the challenges the U.S. faces today, including infectious diseases and terrorism.

“Rising global temperatures, changing precipitation patterns, climbing sea levels, and more extreme weather events will intensify the challenges of global instability, hunger, poverty, and conflict,” Hagel wrote.

“They will likely lead to food and water shortages, pandemic disease, disputes over refugees and resources, and destruction by natural disasters.”

The Pentagon did not detail how it would reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The department is close to finishing a “baseline survey” of how its more than 7,000 military bases, installations and facilities across the globe could be affected by changing climate.

“Climate change is a global problem. Its impacts do not respect national borders,” Hagel said in the report. 

“Politics or ideology must not get in the way of sound planning.”

 

OBAMA TO MEET WITH MILITARY LEADERS: President Obama and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey will host more than 20 foreign defense ministers at Andrews Air Force Base on Tuesday to discuss the campaign against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). 

“The purpose of the meeting is to discuss with foreign chiefs of defense the coalition efforts in the ongoing campaign against ISIL,” said a national security spokeswoman Monday, using an alternate name for the terror group.

“It is part of ongoing efforts to build the coalition and integrate the capabilities of each partner into the broader strategy,” the spokeswoman added.

Countries participating include Middle Eastern partners Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.

Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain and the United Kingdom will also attend, according to a military official.

 

THREAT TO BAGHDAD? Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno says he is only “somewhat” confident that the Iraqi army could defend Baghdad from the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

“I believe the capability is there to defend Baghdad. … But we’ll have to see what plays out over the coming days,” he told reporters at the Association of the United States Army annual conference on Monday.

Defense officials are urging patience with the U.S. strategy against ISIS, even as the group makes gains in western Iraq and in the Syrian border town of Kobani.

ISIS appears to be advancing closer and closer to Baghdad, however, where at least several hundred American troops and civilians are stationed.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Martin Dempsey told ABC News in an interview that aired Sunday that ISIS could be within striking distance of Baghdad.

“Heretofore, we’ve been successful — mostly the Iraqis have been successful — in keeping them out of range. But I have no doubt there will be days when they use indirect fire into Baghdad,” he said.

Odierno also spoke Monday about the Army’s new operating strategy, which will transition the military to be able to deal with many smaller threats and crises simultaneously around the globe.

 

TURKEY: NO DEAL ON MILITARY BASES: Turkey is denying reports that it has agreed to let the U.S. and other coalition nations launch attacks against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) from its military bases. 

The denial comes after U.S. officials announced over the weekend that they had secured Turkey’s permission to allow access to its bases and its airspace. 

U.S. officials have increased pressure in recent days on Turkey, which has been slow to come to the aid of the majority-Kurdish town of Kobani in Syria. The town is only miles from the Syrian-Turkish border. Ankara is reluctant to provide military support over fears of stirring unrest among its own Kurdish minority.

Turkish officials on Monday did confirm they will host a training site for up to 4,000 vetted Syrian rebels, to fight against ISIS and Syrian leader Bashar Assad. 

 

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: 

— Rubio: Obama’s ISIS strategy ‘driven by domestic politics’

— Hundreds of autistic kids still at risk in DOD spending cuts, critics say

— Lockheed Martin gets $90M to upgrade Qatar’s Apache helicopter fleet

— CDC rethinking Ebola strategy after infection of Dallas nurse

—’Surge’ of Ebola personnel sent to Dallas

 

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