Isn't it ironic, dontcha think?

Ah, the American military: humanity's most technologically advanced fighting force. They've gotten a pretty bad rap in the last, oh, forever, for starting unseemly wars with third-world nations and generally just being a nuisance the world over. You'd think the first thing the Powers That Be would want to do to improve their global image would rest in things like foreign policy. You would think so, and so would I, and apparently we'd both be wrong, because the next major step forward for the United States Armed Forces will be an environmental one.

Yep, the Army is going green. You heard me right.

Apparently a number of initiatives have been greenlighted for this year and the coming decade which will see increased attention paid to the environmental effects of, among other things, practice ammunition. Currently, there are millions of dud practice rounds spread out over American bases all over the world, rounds that degrade and release toxic chemicals into ground water (apparently even fake ammo is deadly). American Rheinmetall Munitions has started to produce a specialized practice round designed to not explode on contact. Instead the round will release a flash and coloured dye to show where the shell hit. Paintballs, essentially. Oh, and they're biodegradable, so the Army no longer has to worry about cleaning up after long practice maneuvers. Good thing too -- it seems cleaning up is not something these folks are particularly good at.

Hot on the heels of this initiative are other research programs with an eye towards producing cleaner jet fuel for the Air Force's attack planes, and hybrid technology to be implemented in ground assault vehicles.

Okay, let me be totally clear about this. I am definitely on board with anybody's green initiative; anything to save the planet.

But.

This is the U.S. military we're talking about -- you know, the folks who brought us napalm, fragmentation mines and the atomic bomb.

The whole point of a military force is to blow stuff up and kill people. And these are the people trying to save the environment?

The irony would be hilarious if it wasn't kind of sickening. Check out the story here just so you know I'm totally not lying. It never ends, folks.