The US Navy has so far offered two different justifications of why its carrier jets bombed the Great Barrier Reef, a treasured World Heritage site. The inconsistencies lead
US Person to think the reason is actually
boredom, but that explanation would not play well with the public either in Australia or the United States. When first reported the Navy said two Harrier attack bombers
[photo] on a training run Tuesday released their four bombs on the Reef because they could not return to their carrier with the ordinance for lack of fuel. Apparently that explanation was not satisfactory from a public relations standpoint, so the story became they released their bombs on the Reef because the pilots tried to avoid boats in the practice area. Either way the Reef, already
endangered by mining, increased ship traffic, and climate change, got unnecessarily bombarded by our naval 'zoomies'. The park authority in charge of the
marine preserve wants the ordinance removed even though it says the inert bombs pose little risk to wildlife. The unarmed bombs are lying in 50 meters of seawater on a
sandy bottom south of Bell Cay. The real question is: why does the United States waste so much money on repetitive war games like Talisman Sabre in a relative peaceful region of the world during a time of fiscal austerity? These exercises are conducted every two years at Shoalwater Bay right next to a marine reserve visited by hundreds of private boats, not to mention home to protected wildlife. Earlier this year a US Navy frigate grounded on a protected reef in the Coral Sea. A global force for good? Greed is more accurate.
