Putting national security ahead of critters

NY Post Editorial:

The US Supreme Court made an important statement this week on a president's authority as commander-in-chief, ruling that the US Navy's use of active sonar in anti-submarine training off the coast of Southern California qualifies as an urgent national-defense matter.

Environmentalists complained that sonar poses a risk to whales.

Perhaps.

But inadequately trained anti-submarine operators certainly pose a risk to US national security - to say nothing of American sailors - and that should trump whales.

Such training - in that area, specifically - is especially important because the island channels there resemble the naval conditions in the Strait of Hormuz and inside the Persian Gulf, where Russian-built Iranian subs are known to lurk.

...

This case reminds me of that scene in Patton when a column of troops is held up because a Donkey with a cart behind it is clocking a bridge while the Germans are strafing. Patton rushes to the front of the column of troops and vehicles, see the donkey blocking the way. Infuriated he pulls out his pistol and shoots the donkey in the head and has the troops throw the donkey and his cart off the bridge so the column can get moving again. It was clearly the right thing to do even if Peta and the environmentalist did not like it. The troops are more important than a donkey or a whale as is their mission.