GET LOST

The Senate is commencing hearings on the Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST), with the intention of ramming it through the Senate after the November 2012 elections during the lame duck session – much like the Democrats did with their most recent Christmas present – the START Treaty. LOST will cede American sovereignty to the United Nations and will tax the United States to fund UN military operations.  I oppose it.

Inconsistent with American principles, Sen. Kerry, the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is chairing these hearings, but no one who opposes LOST has been invited to appear.  LOST supporters –  especially Secretary of State Hillary Clinton – don’t seem to understand the threat that it poses to American sovereignty. Under questioning by Sen. Mike Lee, Secy. Clinton came off as flustered, ill-informed, and “lost,” remaining captive to her talking points. 

Some of the problems with the treaty include:

·        it contains a backdoor tax increase on U.S. businesses that would be used to fund the operations of the international organization charged with overseeing it and could force America into the a Kyoto-style “cap and trade” system that would further damage the nation’s industrial productivity and move U.S. government funds offshore to yet another international body;

·        according to a “conservative” estimate by the U.S. Extended Continental Shelf Task Force, the United States would transfer $70 billion to the International Seabed Authority, the organization charged with overseeing LOST;

·        under LOST, the responsibility for preserving freedom of the seas would be relegated to a United Nations body whose mission is to resolve conflicts before they become shooting wars. It is not in the national interest of the United States to have its maritime or economic power subject to the whims of a highly politicized U.N. bureaucracy often driven by an anti-American agenda. Nor is it in its interest to be a party to another treaty that other signatories might flout with impunity; and

·        in addition, the Treaty could also get in the way of fighting the war on terror, for which the United States needs maximum flexibility. The treaty identifies only four circumstances under which ships may be stopped on the high seas -- human trafficking, drug trafficking, piracy and illegal broadcasting;

America has been down this road before. It lead to war not to peace. During the period between WWI and WWII, the global powers developed a series of treaties intended to prevent war. The democratic states abided by them while the dictatorships in Germany, Italy and Japan did not. They cheated as all bad state actors do, and the world turned a blind eye to their dishonesty. This left the democracies at a distinct disadvantage and ill-prepared when war eventually came.
Peace, as Ronald Reagan famously said, is best secured through strength. America has been complying voluntarily with the terms of treaty since 1983 -- a situation that protects its sovereignty and gives it maximum flexibility.

Before we GET LOST, we should GET SMART.