Pat Buchanan has an opinion on LOST, noting that then President Reagan in 1982 refused to sign the Law of the Sea Treaty or send it to the Senate. Now apparently George Bush, the US Senate, and the Navy are aligned to support it:

What is the matter with Bush? What is the matter with the U.S. Navy? For the sea treaty grants us no rights we do not already have in international law and tradition — it only codifies them. It siphons off national rights, national sovereignty and national wealth, however, and empowers global bureaucrats and Third World kleptocrats whose common trait is jealousy of and hostility toward the United States.

Under LOST, if the United States wishes to mine the ocean or scoop up minerals from its floor, we would have to pay a fee and get permission from the Authority, then provide a subsidiary of the Authority called the Enterprise with a comparable site for its own exploitation with our technology. Eventually, the Authority would collect 7 percent of the revenue from the U.S. mining site, giving this institution of world government what the United Nations has hungered for for decades: the power to tax nations.

While the treaty assures the right of peaceful passage on the high seas and through narrows that are territorial waters, we already have that right under international law. And for the past two centuries, we have had as guarantor of the right of free passage the U.S. Navy. Now, we will have it courtesy of the International Seabed Authority.

“It is inconceivable to this naval officer,” writes Adm. James Lyons, former commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific, “why the Senate would willingly want to forfeit its responsibility for America’s freedom of the seas to the unelected and unaccountable international agency that would be created by the ratification of LOST.

“The power of the U.S. Navy, not some anonymous bureaucracy, has been the nation’s guarantee to our access to and freedom of the seas. I can cite many maritime operations — from the blockade of Cuba in 1962, to the reflagging of ships in the Persian Gulf, to our submarine intelligence-gathering programs — that have been critical to maintaining our freedom of the seas and protecting our waters from encroachment. All those examples would likely have to be submitted to an international tribunal for approval if we become a signatory to this treaty. … This is incomprehensible.”

U.S. warships today inspect vessels suspected of carrying nuclear contraband. In the Cold War, U.S. submarines entered harbors to tap into communications cables to protect our national security. Our subs routinely transit straits submerged. To do this, post-LOST, the Navy would have to get permission from an Authority composed of states most of which have an almost unbroken record of voting against us in the United Nations. Why are we doing this?

We note that this is not new news. The administration has had the same — inexplicable — position on this treaty for several years now.

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 13th, 2007 at 11:43 am and is filed under Democrats, General, Republicans, War. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.