Editor,

Capt. Mike Nortier’s guest column highlights a Navy trying to reverse engineer the self-inflicted damage they achieved in their own public information meetings on the north end of the Olympic Peninsula.

Let’s take a look at a few of the captain’s myth-statement of myths:

The reckless claim that the transmitters are not dangerous is thoroughly refuted online at http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/28009-documents-show-navy-s-electromagnetic-warfare-training-would-harm-humans-and-wildlife

The claim that a 10 percent increase in the number of Growlers is nothing much at all is kind of silly. When the 15 new Growlers, a $100 million/jet or $1.4 billion cash cow to Boeing, were announced, the Navy seemed to think that was a significant number and that more were sure to follow.

The captain authoritatively states that “it is extremely unlikely that the training … will adversely affect people, animals or the environment,” which seems rather imaginative given that is hardly his area of expertise, and given the absence of any credible studies to support that claim and given an abundance of credible information, as in the website above, that indicates otherwise.

The objective of all military expenditures and training certainly once was “to protect and save American lives,” but, unfortunately, that noble mission has been tainted by lack of necessary oversight, like a once-good kid led astray as a spoiled teen with too much freedom at the hands of apathetic parents.

The industrial military complex now controls the military, and the economic engine for that is the pork barrel that now has 60 percent of our taxes going to support the military.

Yes, Capt. Nortier, we all deserve “the very best equipment … this country can provide,” but how much of it and where that equipment is tested should be a thoughtful and deliberative process, not a rubber stamp in the hands of a congressperson stamping home the military bacon for their district.

Robert Wilbur

Coupeville