Posted on 12/09/2004 2:07:54 PM PST by dandelion
It's a great question: why don't we have enough armor? Kind of like it's great to see a contestant win a lot of money on a game show - but it's a LOT better when it's not manufactured.
Fixed. Staged. Chroreographed.
Whatever you want to call it, the news is always better when the reporter doesn't insert himself into the mix, as Edward Pitts has supposedly done.
According to Drudge:
From: EDWARD LEE PITTS, MILITARY AFFAIRS Sent: Wednesday, December 8, 2004 4:44 PM To: Staffers
Subject: RE: Way to go
I just had one of my best days as a journalist today. As luck would have it, our journey North was delayed just long enough see I could attend a visit today here by Defense Secretary Rumsfeld. I was told yesterday that only soldiers could ask questions so I brought two of them along with me as my escorts. Before hand we worked on questions to ask Rumsfeld about the appalling lack of armor their vehicles going into combat have. While waiting for the VIP, I went and found the Sgt. in charge of the microphone for the question and answer session and made sure he knew to get my guys out of the crowd.
There was this thing, and we called it "journalistic ethics". But enough about ancient history - when the chips go down the press will always say "it doesn't mean the story/question/incident/expense report isn't true". Fair enough, it's a great question and it deserves to go on the editorial page. It does not deserve on the "news" page when a soldier (who was coached by the reporter) is picked by the mic man (who was also coached by the reporter) so other reporters can specifically target an individual with the administration. These Q&A sessions have been held in the past, but always without the Old Media present. This is the reason why.
But on to the great question: yes, they should ask this, and they should get an honest answer. Do you really want to know why we don't have enough armor? Let's find out why Dick Durbin (D, PA) says we don't have any armor...
From the Congressional Record, Feb. 11, 2004. (PDF):
We should do better. I said to the Secretary of the Army: Isn't this a priority? He said: It is our highest priority to build the 8,400 doors for these Humvees. He told me that many will be made in my State at the Rock Island Arsenal . I visited the Rock Island Arsenal and saw the first sets of doors come off for the Humvees, and the workers were so proud. They knew they had done something significant.
I said to the commander at the arsenal : How long will it take us now? We need 8,400 sets and we are also doing them at Anniston. He said: We are going to get these doors built in one year.
One year? In World War II, we were building bombers in 72 hours and ships in 30 and 60 days, and we need 1 year to make the armor-plated doors to protect the Humvees so that fewer of our men and women in uniform will have to go to Walter Reed Hospital for prosthetic devices and medical treatment.
I said: Why is it taking one year? He said: Because there is only one steel-fabricating plant left in America, and it is in Pennsylvania. It makes the steel that we can convert into the armor plating for these doors. We are using everything they produce as fast as they produce it.
So when the issue comes up about loss of manufacturing jobs, and loss of American jobs, and loss of our industrial base, it is more than a cold discussion of statistics; it is a discussion about the reality of our economy and the reality we face. Whether you live in North Carolina, where we have lost textile jobs, or you live in Illinois, where we have lost steel jobs, the fact is, as we lose these jobs, we lose our capacity. When it comes to something as basic as steel, that capacity plays out so that our soldiers in Iraq today are more vulnerable to enemy attack because we cannot produce the steel in America.
What makes this all the more damning is the fact that this information came from a Democrat in the now-dashed hope of making the economy a priority in an election year. Never mind that Durbin never points to the fact that this decimation of American Steel and the manufacturing industry happened as a whole under the Clinton Administration. Obviously, American products should be used to create American Armor, so as to avoid any chance of sabotage or low quality. But now we have to buy the vast majority of our steel from foreign countries, many of whom may disagree with our policies, and to whom we have to pay top dollar. Americans weren't supposed to do that anymore, remember? We were all going to work in those new Hi-Tech industries, we were all going to have cushy high-paying service jobs, so Clinton gave away our manufacturing jobs and all the contracts to foreign governments. Now most of our steel comes from China. Remember?
The real recipient of this question should be ever member of Congress who let American Steel die - NOT Donald Rumsfeld. A real reporter would ask the question of those who are responsible, not send in a stooge to ask it of those they'd like to see blamed for this mess.
Why don't we have armor?
Because we only have ONE American factory that makes steel for our armor, that's why. IF we want more American armor, we need to manufacture more American Steel.
It's really too bad the Old Media doesn't ask this question of those who could do something about it. But it appears they are only interested in manufacturing the news...
ping
This would be an interesting post, if true.
However there are many more than ONE steel fabricating
plants in America.
We shouldn't forget that we are also facing weapons the Iraqis wouldn't have had if the sanctions against Iraq had been working.
CORRECTION: Dick Durbin, (D, IL) not (D PA). Correct at the original article. How'd that slip in there?
SO is Dick Durbin lying? Not that it's out of question, mind you. Info please, this is a "living" post...
Durbin (as well as the Rock Island arsenal) is from IL, not PA. I'm all for free trade now because with the globalization the last few years, these jobs are gone and there's NOTHING anyone can do about it without devestating the whole economy. With today's tech, as long as there are people in China who will work for 5 cents an hour, American steel and manufacturing is GONE. So support free trade now because protectionism can only make it worse by isolating us and making other countries angry and hostile towards us. Perhaps the steel workers unions that are left should stop asking for more money and thank God they still exist.
Ah - here's the question. Are they American owned? I believe according to the article, we are talking about American owned and operated steel fabricators, not foreign-owned. If I'm not mistaken there is a clause in Defense contracts which states that certain items must be provided by American-owned/operated businesses...
OK. But how many make the specialized light weight molded armor that goes on HUMVEE's?
What was supposed to happen? Guaranteed price supports for steel, so that the rest of the economy gets to subsidize them? A ban on importing steel (which is exactly the same thing)? Direct government subsidies, so that steel plants can continue to operate at a loss?
One industry produces steel. Dozens of industries use steel. Keeping the price of steel artificially high benefits the steelworkers' union, at the expense of the whole rest of the country.
Who let American Steel die? It wasn't Congress, and it wasn't foreign governments. It was the steel industry itself, by assuming that the good times would last forever, and the steelworkers' unions, by demanding the same power no matter what happened.
It isn't a hopeless prospect to manufacture steel in America. Dozens of "minimills" have sprung up in the shadow of the dead steel giants, because they use modern technology and non-union labor. But it is a hopeless prospect to run U.S. Steel or Bethlehem Steel under the assumption that it's going to be 1955 forever.
Thanks. I want to see about what Konaice said too (more than one plant making the armor) also.
" Info please, this is a "living" post..."
---
Is that something like a Living constitution?
http://www.thomasregisterdirectory.com/metal_fabricators/steel_fabrication_0026101_1.html
From now on, please do your own research, especially when
disproving Democrats talking points, - after all, its So Easy and fun to discredit Democrats... ;-)
I live in a steel town near the Rock Island arsenal. The plant went down here went down because union people who worked at the mill couldn't get over that other people in other countries don't require 60 grand with full benefits a year for a job with no education required.
But if the sanctions worked then they could be lifted and that would end the Oil for Food program that is lining the pockets
of the hacks at the U.N. and Saddam himself. If it was ever exposed that Saddam did not have the weapons that kept his people and neighbors in fear of him then he would have gotten two in the hat and that's the end of Oil for Food. The French convinced Saddam that Bush was bluffing. They were wrong.
Has anyone ever seen more use of the personal pronouns, I, me, we and us.
This guy's story isn't about the town hall meeting. Its about Edward Lee Pitts.
This is Dick Durbin's own statement out of the Congressional Record, so if Dick Durbin is lying, I'd like to know. I'm checking your link, but once again - are these companies majority American-owned?
This is largely true, but it doesn't have to be true. The cost of running a steel company could be (dramatically) simplified to the following:
1. Cost of materials, +
2. Cost of labor, +
3. Cost of shipping to the customer.
On factor #1, China and the US are essentially tied. We've got iron ore, and they've got iron ore. On factor #2, China has the US beat hollow. On factor #3, the US has China beat hollow (assuming domestic or nearby consumption).
Solution: diminish the extent to which factor #2 is important by using new processes which aren't labor-intensive. You might end up with a steel foundry which had 45 employees instead of 1,200, but you'd also end up with an American company which could produce steel price-competitively with China.
(The successful American mini-mills are competing on both #1 and #2. They use small amounts of labor, and they generally recycle scrap steel instead of using new ore - a cheaper input. Why don't you ever heard about the mini-mills? Because the steel unions hate them and want to pretend that the rusting hulks of Pennsylvania are the entire steel industry.)
That requirement wasn't in the original statement.
Nor would the guys in Iraq give a ratsass where the armor came from once the bullits start flying.
If they can make it, make them make it, and if they don't want to, Nationalize them and do it at gunpoint.
Most excellent analysis! I guess most of it boils down to getting rid of the bloody labor unions.
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