Concern for Whales Should Not Stop Navy from Using Sonar
By David Holcberg
(San Diego Union Tribune, January 8, 2008; The Virginian-Pilot, January 9, 2008)

Re "Judge bans Navy from using sonar off Southern California":

It's outrageous that our federal laws and judges place the well-being of whales above that of humans.

Even if, as alleged, the use of sonar "severely threatens the lives and health of marine mammals," no law should prevent the Navy from using this crucial military technology. The fundamental purpose of government in a free society is the protection of the individual rights of its citizens. If the Navy judges that sonar experiments off the coast of California might increase its ability to detect such potential military threats as hostile submarines, it should do these experiments. Our national defense and our very lives may depend on it.

This attack on our Navy's ability to defend us from foreign threats is yet another example of environmental laws being used to sacrifice our interests for the alleged "rights" of animals. Once again, environmentalists are showing whose side they are on, and it is not humanity's.

  

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