Loss of canal poses great danger for United States

This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang, but a whimper . .

In the space of a few short weeks, the United States of America will emit another pitiable whimper.

On or before December 31, Old Glory, where she still flies, will be hauled down across the length of the Panama Canal. Though not visibly, the flag of Red China will then fly over the ports at either end of the canal.

The media, with typical mindlessness (or perversity), will describe the process as "reversion."

In reality, it is a brutal blow to the soul of America-and without soul, a nation is nothing. But it is also a deeply troubling challenge to the national security of the United States.

Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R.Miss.), at an Armed Services Committee hearing in late October, expressed his "alarm" that Red Chinese companies should have a chokehold on canal operations. Those companies, he said, "do what the government tells them to do." Predictably, the State Department told the senators that "we have found no information to substantiate" allegations of Beijing influence over the companies claim that raised many eyebrows on Capitol Hill.

More oi this later. -For We moment, 4h look back.

Countdown to End Of American Era

The countdown to the end of the American era in Panama began on Sept. 7, 1977, in a ceremony at the palatial Pan American Union building in Washington at which James Earl Carter-the democratically elected President of the United States-- joined Omar Torrijos Herrera--4he roughneck dictator of Panama-in signing two treaties that transferred control of the canal from the country that had built it to a cardboard country midwifed into being for the express purpose of having the canal built.

Incredibly, the Carter negotiators agreed to an immediate transfer of the ten-milewide Canal Zone-not only the site of the U.S. military bases, but also the vital support facilities for canal operation. Deterioration of those facilities set in almost immediately.

Hardest hit was the vital rainforest, jealously protected under U.S. stewardship. Now, the scarred and deforested land is creating a silting problem so serious as to threaten to force closing of the locks for extended periods.

As Panama has gained increasing control over operation of the canal in recent years, as envisioned in the treaty, and the Unites States has had a constantly diminishing role, reports surface regularly of mounting maintenance problems at the canal itself. The sheer cost of maintaining and modernizing the canal would strain the ingenuity and resourcefulness even of a model state. Panama is not that state.

The country the United States was truckling under to back in 1977 reeked of corruption, of instability, of a parasite mentality. As American Enterprise Institute scholar Mark Falcoff puts it in the current issue of the American Spectator "The 22-year period of transition is almost concluded, and whether Panama is ready or not, one of the world's most crucial waterways will come under the 'management of a government that historically has been notable for its disorganization, inefficiency, and corruption. In the old days, Panama's deficiencies were irrelevant as long as the United States was there to run its most valuable resource."

With the Unites States in the wings, Panama--and the world-could shrug off as well the sorry political record of the country. When not ruled by dictators, Panama was more often than not governed by a dizzying succession of presidents. In 1948, for example, Panama had five presidents in the space of a few months, one of whom lasted only four days.

In signing those 1977 treaties, Carter legitimated in power arguably the worst of the historic lot of Panamanian leaders. Omar

Torrijos was an unscrupulous demagogue, a bully, a leftist who delighted in U.S.-baiting-and a man with a documented and egregious record of human rights violations.

Yet, Carter looked the other way. He was, after all, the self-styled "human rights President."

in signing those treaties, Carter-a Naval Academy graduate-placed the future security of the United States at grave risk. in signing those treaties, Carter, a self-styled populist, flouted the wishes of an overwhelming majority of Americans, as expressed in one public opinion poll after another at the time.

Torrijos Praises

Fidel Castro

In signing those treaties, Carter-who campaigned on the slogan, "I'll never lie to you"connived in fostering the Big Lie that America's vital interests were safeguarded by the treaties.

As time and experience have proven, they were not.

Indeed, three weeks before the formal signing ceremony of the treaties, the chief Panamanian negotiator, Dr. Romulo Escobar Bethancourt, recited, in a highly emotional speech to the Panamanian National Assembly, how each and every one of the vaunted "guarantees" Carter and Company bragged about were hollow, meaningless and non-binding.

As for Torrijos, en route back from the glittering Washington ceremony attended by the heads of many Western Hemisphere governments, he fired off a message to a head of state who didn't attend, his crony, Fidel Castro. 'As I fly across Cuba's skies on my return to the fatherland," he said, "I greet you with friendship, as always. It is my wish that the Cuban people, under your skilled leadership, may continue on their march toward Latin American progress. In Latin America, your name is associated with feelings of dignity linked to the elimination of all remnants of shameful colonialism."