It is not quite as simple as you make it seem. Why can’t we test sonar responsibly AND make humans “our first priority.”

The either/or choice you’ve presented is a false one. We can do both – and should.

Well, only in some part and not in recent history. Most of the wars fought in this nation’s history – especially in last 125 years – had nothing to do with defense of home and hearth. World War I, Spanish American War, Vietnam, Korea, Gulf War, Iraq, etc. were all wars of intervention and in some cases – to support a particular economic interest friendly to the political power occupying the Administration and Congress at the time.

The true story is that American military service, combined with regular Joes and Jills protesting in the streets, lawsuits, legislation, lawsuits, legislation, lawsuits, legislation, etc. also played major roles in granting us the right (not privilege) of free speech. Free speech is guaranteed by the First Amendment, not the Department of Defense.

I tire of the “you owe me because I gave you free speech” argument.

I didn’t give Heidi free speech by the simple act of wearing a uniform and serving in the United States Marine Corps.

Heidi’s free speech was paid for with the blood and sweat of countless Americans – including, but not limited to veterans – of prior generations who worked to protect such speech. The right to express an unpopular or politically incorrect (definition subject to prevailing political opinion at the time) is constantly under threat by government and social forces on the prowl for ways in which to curtail, restrict or outlaw speech they deem threatening to their power structure or social goals.

Please, let’s stop using that misleading, historically false, and shallow argument.

Sergeant James Landrith
USMC and Gulf War veteran

But to the topic at hand:

High-intensity sonar, designed to detect enemy submarines, blasts whales with a sonic barrage that is billions of times more intense than sound levels known to disturb them. As a result, hundreds of whales have beached themselves and died in the Bahamas, Greece, the Canary Islands, Japan and other sites around the world. Many stranded whales have been found bleeding around their brains and ears after their fatal encounters with sonar systems. The scientists of the International Whaling Commission have declared that “overwhelming” evidence points to mid-frequency sonar as the culprit behind such terrible — and avoidable — deaths.

Despite these dangers – and its own admission that sonar can kill whales — the Navy’s new Atlantic Undersea Warfare Training Range would create a 500-square-mile hub of sonar activity — assaulting whales, dolphins and other marine life with a year-round barrage of deafening sound.

Meanwhile, the Navy’s refusal to adopt simple whale-protection measures when training with sonar is a flagrant violation of our nation’s environmental laws. Such measures would not compromise military readiness.

Navy officials have announced that they will defy the California Coastal Commission’s recommendation that Navy ships take commonsense safety measures while blasting thousands of square nautical miles of ocean with ear-splitting, mid-frequency sound. As a result, California is bringing its own lawsuit against the Navy.

In July 2006, NRDC and its partners won a victory restricting the Navy’s use of sonar during a massive international military exercise in the waters off Hawaii. After NRDC secured a court order temporarily blocking the Navy’s use of sonar during the month-long exercise, the Navy agreed to create a sonar-free buffer zone around the newly established Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Marine National Monument; significantly increase the monitoring of marine mammals during sonar drills; and implement other protective measures.

So, um – where’s your homework?

Come spend a Day with me and I will show you how we cant even throw away a rag that may be oil soaked as it may impact the environment, come spend a day with me and I will show you how we have to account for every item of hazardous material like oil, paint cans, empty hydraulic oil or engine oil,batteries,any hazardous containers and how they must be triple rinsed as to not impact the environment, how we must have oil/water separator drains in the floor in the event of an oil spill, no organization I have worked for ever has such attention to detail and such strict policy’s that have to be adhered to, this is a little off topic but you need to a little more research on why and when such testing is done and then weigh the impact on why it is done, do you know why they test where they test? Do you know what REAL impact this has on the whales in that area? is it a 1% chance that a whale may be impacted due to this testing or is this testing going to kill all 300 whales?

Looks like you have a little homework to do.

You gotta love the free speech in this country……….and you can thank a veteran for that by the way.