Amid rampant attacks from insurgents in 2004, some US commanders in Iraq began to shift strategy to include fixing environmental problems like clogged sewer lines, growing trash piles, and polluted drinking water.
That green-warrior approach to winning "hearts and minds" seemed to help. Attacks fell dramatically in Baghdad neighborhoods when troops restored clean water. "Fence sitters" in the conflict sided with US forces.
Yet despite several such successes and a strong environmental ethic on bases in the United States, US Army commanders typically overlook environmental concerns in plans for operations overseas, says a new RAND Corporation study.
Commissioned by the Army Environmental Policy Institute (AEPI), the study examined the role environmental considerations and issues play in the Army's "contingency operations" – long-term missions abroad that may involve conflict.
The conclusion: The US Army succeeds better when it's a deeper shade of green.
"Although environmental considerations are integral to the Army's ability to meet national objectives … they are often underrepresented in the competition for attention, investments, and manpower," the report states. While the Army does have some environmental policy guidelines for such operations, it "has no comprehensive approach to environmental considerations in contingencies, especially in the post-conflict phase."
As a result, fuel and other hazardous-waste spills, raw sewage gushing into local waters (from bases that were supposed to be temporary but grew to be permanent), and gargantuan garbage piles have plagued Army operations – and irritated local populations – from Haiti and Bosnia to Afghanistan and Iraq, the report found.
Does that mean soldiers must become tree-huggers? Not exactly. Department of Defense directives exempt combat operations from environmental requirements. But in one of its most striking findings, RAND says incorporating environmental concerns into planning contingency operations "can have a significant impact … and be particularly important for success in the post-conflict phase."
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