Whales as a necessary casualty?

What I find fascinating about the U.S. military is their continual insistence that they care about preserving life and then with nearly every policy, the destruction of life on some level is considered acceptable. How is it possible that with all of the technology and funding that the military has at their disposal these days (and I truly hope that those days of unbridled spending are numbered), they are cannot help but harm or cause death in at least 30 species of marine life off the coast of California? There isn’t any other solution to this problem? Or is it just that it would require more creativity than the Navy can muster?

This brings to mind similar problems of a creativity void that I see, hear, and read about in today's corporations. Our ability to proceed with "business as usual" is becoming a crutch. Some one's in the way? Run them over. Someone has opinion that doesn't tote the party line? Fire them. Some one's best interests are in the way? Run them over. Or in the Navy's case, destroy them. I mean, it's just a few whales right? This is NATIONAL SECURITY we're talking about here. Or is it just inconvenience for the Navy to think different?

Creativity seems to only rise to the top as a driver of solutions when it is the only option left on the table. Given the current state of our economy, and our wold-wide relations, we may have no other choice now except to let creativity lead us to a better solution. Brawn is clearly not working. It's no wonder that the WEF in Davos chose Innovation as its theme this year. Innovation is the only way forward.

For a related article on this topic that appeared in today's New York Times, visit http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/22/opinion/22tue2.html?th&emc=th.

The above photo can be found at http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/staticfiles/NGS/Shared/StaticFiles/animals/images/primary/humpback-whales-singing.jpg