Global Warming A National Security Issue, Says Richard Clarke

That’s according to former national security advisor Richard Clarke, who was one of the first to challenge the Current Occupant over his disastrous war in Iraq. Now, in a characteristically fiery op-ed called While You Were at War,  he uses a sports metaphor from second grade to again confront "Washington’s grown-up 7-year-olds." This time he calls them out for playing a particularly stupid form of "herd ball" politics, in which all the players try to move one issue, all the while ignoring infinitely more pressing matters:

When the possibility of invading Iraq surfaced in 2001, senior Bush administration officials hadn’t thought much about global warming, except to wonder whether it was caused by human activity or by sunspots. Today, the world’s scientists and many national leaders worry that the world has passed the point of no return on global warming. If it has, then human damage to the ecosphere will cause more major cities to flood and make the planet significantly less conducive to human habitation — all over the lifetime of a child now in kindergarten. British Prime Minister Tony Blair keeps trying to convince President Bush of the magnitude of the problem, but in every session between the two leaders Iraq squeezes out the time to discuss the pending planetary disaster.