Many people are wary of this country becoming more and more militaristic. Sometimes events seem to strengthen this belief. The Navy vs. environmental groups on SONAR being a threat to marine mammals seemed to be heading in that direction.
A recent New York Times article seemed to imply that the Supreme Court was leaning towards extreme deference to the military. See "Supreme Court rules for Navy in SONAR Case", New York Times, 2008-11-13.
The opening paragraph reads:
"Courts must be wary of second-guessing the military’s considered judgments, the Supreme Court said Wednesday in lifting judicial restrictions on submarine training exercises off the coast of Southern California that may harm marine mammals."
Oh, boy! thought I. We are on a slippery slope here. We have all the politicians who want to defer to the military with its interpretation of the "situation on the ground." Now we have the Supreme Court doing so.
It isn't until the end of the article that one finds a much more nuanced judgement:
"'Of course,' Chief Justice Roberts added, 'military interests do not always trump other considerations, and we have not held that they do. In this case, however, the proper determination of where the public interest lies does not strike us as a close question.'”
