Bush's New World dis-Order

It looks like Bush is abandoning what's left of his conservative base before they abandon him.

Bush told the group, "This is a fine organization and it's an important organization. It's rallying businesses and non-governmental organizations and faith-based and community and civic organizations across our country to advance a noble cause, ensuring that the United States leads the world in spreading hope and opportunity."

Another part of this "legacy building" is his decision to seek ratification of the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), a dangerous document that transfers control of the oceans and much of the land area of the world as well to a U.N. bureaucracy. It finances its activities with a global tax. The pact is endorsed by some of the same groups and individuals involved in the Global Leadership Campaign.

UNCLOS charges American corporations a "fee" for exploiting ocean resources for the benefit of America and threatens these same corporations with global climate change litigation before an international court if they "pollute" the oceans from anywhere on the face of the earth.

U.S. Navy support for UNCLOS masks the sharp decline in U.S. Naval forces. The number of U.S. ships has declined under Bush to 276, from a high of 594 under President Reagan, who rejected UNCLOS. The Bush budget projects their further decline to 210. The American Shipbuilding Association says that, if present trends continue, the U.S. Naval Fleet will decline to 180 ships by 2024.

Those who haven't been paying attention think that Bush's policy for the last six years has been "unilateralist" and anti-U.N. He did keep us out of the global warming and International Criminal Court treaties. He also withdrew the U.S. from the ABM treaty so the nation could pursue national missile defense. But generally speaking, he has been pouring huge amounts of money into the U.N. and associated institutions. Office of Management and Budget figures show that U.S. financial contributions to the U.N. System under Bush have gone from $3.1 billion in fiscal year 2001 to $5.3 billion in fiscal year 2005.