Tim Goodrich is a veteran who deployed to the Middle East in support of the Global War on Terrorism. He currently attends graduate school at the University of Southern California and is a Sierra Club member and Partner at the Truman National Security Project. This article originally appeared on KCET.org.
I just bought a new car and will never need to buy gasoline again. The reason I have been able to happily drive past increasingly expensive gas stations isn't because I haven't been driving the car, it's because the car I bought runs entirely on electricity.
My decision to purchase an electric car was driven by a variety of reasons, but the simplest reason was this: The cost of filling up with gas is just too much. I'm not just writing about the price we're paying at the pump; I am also referring to the cost to our future generations, our national security, and our economy. As a veteran, I have seen the toll these costs take and I am doing what I can to stop contributing to the problem.
At the age of 18, I enlisted in the active duty Air Force and went on to deploy three times to the Middle East, supporting the no fly zones over Iraq, the initial response to Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks, and the pre-war bombing of Iraq. My unit also supported homeland defense operations and after my honorable discharge, I traveled to Baghdad as part of a fact finding delegation.
Through these experiences, I came to see that our foreign policy needs to evolve in order to provide smarter national security here at home. After all, how much sense does it make to spend $400 per gallon getting gas to our service members in remote regions of Afghanistan? How much sense does it make to send money to countries that don't like us, don't share our values, and sometimes find ways to get that money into the hands of terrorist organizations? The Rand Corporation found that US armed forces spend up to $83 billion annually protecting vulnerable infrastructure and patrolling oil transit routes. US Navy Secretary Roy Mabus recently said, "The Army did a study and found that out of every 24 fuel convoys we use [in Afghanistan], a soldier or marine is killed or wounded guarding that convoy. That's a high price to pay for fuel."
For these reasons, our military is currently researching and using alternative energy technologies in the field. If our military as a whole sees the importance of getting off fossil fuels, and the lives of our service members depend on it, I want to support that effort.
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