New York Times Editorial: "Fire on the Water."

New York Times Saturday, October 21, 2006

Editorial:

Fire on the Water


When the Coast Guard decided it wanted to
practice firing its new machine guns on the Great
Lakes, it posted an item in the Federal Registry-
not exactly household reading. Now that the public
has caught up, there is an uproar all around the
lakes- in Canada as well as the United States-
and a belated decision to hold public hearings.


The Coast Guard's proposal is cautious and, as
military exercises go, quite modest. It plans two or
three test firings a year, a few hours each time, in 34
possible areas at least five nautical miles offshore.
Officials argue that it is prudent to give crews heav-
ier weapons than the handguns they carried on
the lakes before 9/11.


Few are disputing that the United States needs
to do more to protect its borders against terrorists.
But we face far more plausible threats than terror-
ists cutting across Lake Michigan in small boats.



As a defense against terrorism, militarizing the
Great Lakes is a symbolic defeat. And it is another
in a series of incremental changes that threaten to
change everything that we take for granted about
our country.


The question is how far we choose to militarize
ourselves at home in response to terrorism. Turning
the Great Lakes- even on occasion- into a live-
fire zone is the kind of decision that says little to ter-
orists but speaks volumes to the rest of us.