[CPEO-MEF] Military animals

[CPEO Moderator <cpeo@cpeo.org>]

THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Inside the Beltway
By John McCaslin
Military animals
July 24, 2003

The president of the Navy League of the United States has warned every
member of Congress this week that "critical defense development and
training programs are being delayed or curtailed as our nation
approaches a turning point in the war on terrorism."

And the problem is?

"The Navy and Marine Corps are besieged by overzealous environmentalists
that have employed vaguely written regulations to delay or cancel key
weapon development programs, severely reduce the size of usable
military-training areas and diminish the opportunities for realistic
training," the league's president, Sheila M. McNeill, tells Congress.

She cites, for starters, a six-year delay of deployment of an advanced
sonar system because of unproved assertions that it would damage marine
mammal populations. (The system would improve substantially the Navy's
ability to detect quiet, diesel-electric submarines deployed by North
Korea and Iran.)

In addition, only a mile of the 17-mile beach at Camp Pendleton, Calif.,
is available to practice amphibious landings, while the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service wants to designate an additional 56 percent of the camp
off-limits to military training, labeling it critical wildlife habitat.
Same story for 65 percent of the Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in
California.

This article can be viewed at (scroll down to the second heading):
http://washingtontimes.com/national/20030723-111638-4179r.htm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~