In another sign that our country is moving further away from "The Greatest Generation," a time when Americans steeled themselves for the fight of their lives and had the mettle to see it through, the U.S. Navy has buckled to complaints from locals and has agreed to stop letting SEALs train in Washington state parks because residents have complained about seeing "armed men."
Never mind that these 'armed men' are part of an elite fighting force training to protect the very people who are complaining.
“It is difficult to find peace in the woods when armed frogmen might be lurking behind every tree,” whined attorneys for the Whidbey Environmental Action Network, the group behind a lawsuit against the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission, in a legal brief filed in court last month.
Mind you, the Navy has been using coastline parks in Washington state for more than three decades to train some of the world's most lethal special operators, all of whom have signed up for the express purpose of putting their lives on the line for our country, including complainers. Navy leaders say Washington state parks and the coastal areas offer perfect training environments allowing instructors to simulate what SEALs are going to encounter during difficult operations in far-away lands.
“This area provides a unique environment of cold water, extreme tidal changes, multi-variant currents, low visibility, complex underwater terrain, climate and rigorous land terrain, which provides an advanced training environment,” said Navy spokesman Joe Overton in an interview with Coffee or Die Magazine.
However, the Navy's use of Washington coastal parks is coming under fire from residents complaining "about both the physiological and environmental impact the SEAL training can have on others using the parks," the New York Post reported.
“I do not care to catch a glimpse of apparently armed men skulking around and I DEFINITELY do not want to risk having my young grandchildren see such a sight,” one resident wrote to state officials during a public commentary period while the state was in the process of renewing its agreement with the Navy.
Other local residents expressed similar left-wing, spineless concerns, with one saying that SEAL training is just to psychologically difficult for their sheltered little hearts to bear.
“In these days of great division in our civil society, we don’t need stealthy men in camo uniforms toting toy guns around our State and County Parks,” one resident complained. “People frequent parks to escape tension, not to encounter more. Keep the Navy commando training out of our parks!”
Still another local resident complained about the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs): “The Navy’s plan is to use larger, gasoline-powered UAVs as well as smaller, electric-powered types. This offers significant potential for direct and indirect injury to birds as well as auditory disruption to the experience of park visitors.”
Again, these are weapons of modern-day warfare; our personnel must train with them and in realistic scenarios and terrain, or they will be at a distinct disadvantage even against an enemy with mid-level capabilities, let alone some of the best forces in the world.
But the complaints nevertheless triggered enough leftists on the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission: Members voted 4-3 to a scaled-back training plan (meaning one that is wholly inadequate to fully train SEALs, making it worthless) limiting where and what time the special operators could train, which then led to a lawsuit to block them from using state parks entirely.
The suit claims that the training is likely to dissuade the public from using the parks because they fear “encountering the proposed war games or being spied upon by Navy personnel.”
In response, the Navy said that SEALs are training for war and special operations, not to harass enemy civilians in parks -- noting that there isn't any use of live ammunition or explosives.
The residents want the SEALs to use some 46 miles of coastline the sea service already controls in Washington state, but the Navy says that terrain doesn't have enough of the realism the SEALs require.
“Although there are several Navy properties in the area, they do not provide the full range of environments needed for this training to be as realistic as possible,” Overton said.
That we're even having this argument as Russia and China continue to test the weakest president in modern history is insane.
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