Editor,

I picked up the Whidbey News-Times and was struck by the fact that our Navy base commander had to write an opinion piece to explain to the American people that training is vital to national security and the safety of everyone in this area.

But apparently there are vocal groups, both on Whidbey Island and the Olympic Pennisula, who feel they need to utilize their First Amendment rights to stop the Navy from doing the necessary training to keep us safe, i.e., shutting down the OLF and stopping electronic warfare training in the Olympics.

However, when does someone’s First Amendment right cross the line into terrorism? I don’t want to evoke McCarthy-era tactics of rooting out communism, but it deserves some discussion. All folks need to do is review the WWII tactics of Germany and Japan preying on weak or unprepared nations to remind us of the need to be ready at all times to meet any threat to our safety as a nation.

The FBI defines domestic terrorism in section 18 U.S.C. § 2331:

“Domestic terrorism” means activities with the following three characteristics:

• Involve acts dangerous to human life that violate federal or state law;

• Appear intended (i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; (ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or (iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination or kidnapping; and

• Occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the U.S.

If you pay attention to the second item above, I would say these folks may be attempting to intimidate or coerce a civilian population and influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion. When the COER organizes town hall meetings for only their ilk and their politicians and files legal actions that cause the temporary shut down of OLF in 2013, this adversely affects necessary aircraft carrier landing practices, putting our troops and security at risk.

When the folks on the Olympic peninsula say they don’t want the electronic warfare training to occur under the guise of safety to humans and animals, they actually make it less safe for all of us due to the Navy not being able to conduct needed training, which, in turn, makes the people they are defending less safe.

However, as the above statute notes, as long as their actions don’t violate state or federal law, they are technically not terrorists. There is a fine line between exercising one’s rights and aiding and abetting our enemies. I know which side of the line I am on … do you?

Thomas Kosloske

Oak Harbor