Quotes about Sea Lanes

William Eaton

If the United States will have a free commerce in this sea, they must defend it..

Tony Abbott

We've got to maintain freedom of navigation of the seas and in the air.

Harry Nichols Whitford

That a shortage of crude rubber is likely to be felt by 1928 is indicated by a comparison of the prospective production and consumption for the next few years. It is a picture which cannot be looked upon with complacency…. there are two distinct problems involved: (1) monopoly control of a basic raw material, and (2) a shortage in that raw material developing within a few years. To meet these problems there are two courses open: (1) new planting, and (2) an extension of America's present holdings in the East…. We have to consider, for example, our national defense, especially as concerns the protection of our lines of transport in the remote contingency of war

In WWII 15 years later, the Japanese seized most of the natural rubber plantations, and the U. S. would have been in great trouble had not American industry expanded the technology developed by the Germans and the Russians in making synthetic rubber in 1931. Whitford’s warning had not been heeded and rubber was rationed throughout the Second World War.

Noam Chomsky

What's the purpose of NATO? Well actually we have an official answer. It isn't publicized much, but a couple of years ago, the secretary-general of NATO made a formal statement explaining the purpose of NATO in the post-Cold War world is to control global energy systems, pipelines, and sea lanes. That means it's a global system and of course he didn't say it, it's an intervention force under US command, as we've seen in case after case. So that's NATO.

Hillary Clinton

Americans deserve to feel secure in their own lives, in their own middle-class aspirations, before you go to them and say, 'We're going to have to enforce navigable sea lanes in the South China Sea.'

Robert Smith

If there is war with any Barbary State, you will then distribute your force in such a manner, as your judgment shall direct, as to best to protect our commerce and chastise their insolence—by sinking, burning or destroying their ships and vessels wherever you shall find them.

Sanjaya Baru

With new oil and gas discoveries, Africa's energy exporters will have to invest in defence capability and work with other Indian Ocean powers to ensure security of sea lanes.

Stephen Kinzer

It is truly vital for the United States to assure that it is not attacked with weapons of mass destruction; to prevent wars in other countries from spreading onto American soil; and to maintain access to global sea lanes on which our economy depends. Beyond that, there is little or nothing in the world that should draw the United States to war.

United States Congress

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the President of the United States shall be, and he is hereby authorized and requested, to cause a survey to be taken of the coasts of the United States, in which shall be designated the islands and shoals, with the roads or places of anchorage, within twenty leagues of any part of the shores of the United States

This is the original legislation that established the Coast & Geodetic Survey which is now an agency of NOAAA.

Ray Mabus

The United States Navy has kept the sea lanes open for the entire world.

America’s oldest foreign policy problem has been freedom of the seas for American shipping. Since the end of WWII, the U. S. however performed this function—and pays for it—for the entire world with some minor exceptions.

Sea Lanes Quotes