[Toddsterpatriot]

Does that mean your supposedly non-senile brain function finally remembers?

Not my fault that I'm younger and clearer thinking than you.

the case is made.

Is China the only source of these magnets? Do we have a strategic reserve of them? If the answers are yes and no, then we're already doomed. That was easy.

You also forgot the near train-wreck with our Swiss "Allies"? That was a real example, since swept under the rug for diplomacy's sake. But there was a real blockage. For political reasons. And if they hadn't resolved them...our JDAMs would have been useless.

Yeah, that was terrible. We should now make those parts ourselves.

which reiterates some key facts that destroy your postion(sic).

Destroy my position that we made $1.79 trillion in manufactured goods last year? How does that work again?

Also fellow national-security-concerneds to this thread to examine your little lobbying outfit's continued and malicious influence-peddling of the sinister kind...against national defense.

Maybe Paul would have an example where anyone has lobbied against national defense?

[expat_panama]

Dang it Todd, trying to get Ross' ideas sorted out and organized is like trying to teach a bunch of cats to walk single file.

What's happened with American trade and industry is that over the past decade our factories have increased production to the equivalent of a jillion new combat trucks, and Ross is saying that this is bad because we've also gotten rich enough to import a jillion new tires for these trucks.

-- and he's saying we had more military power before?

[Mase]

You also forgot the near train-wreck with our Swiss "Allies"? That was a real example, since swept under the rug for diplomacy's sake. But there was a real blockage. For political reasons. And if they hadn't resolved them...our JDAMs would have been useless.

With Paul's penchant for quoting from left wing sources like E.P.I. I've always though it important to find another source to confirm (or deny) what he's asserting.

The Heritage Foundation (Jack Spencer): The one example that the [anti-free market people] cite [of a product that wasn't provided by a foreign contractor] is the Swiss and the JDAM crystal. It took us 72 hours to have two separate fixes on that.

Q: In all of your meetings and discussions, did you hear of any other examples beyond that one?

Spencer: No. That's it! That's it! First of all, the Swiss company came around and said, "There was a mistake, here is your JDAM crystal." And, by the way, the manufacturers themselves got on a plane and figured out a way to get new ones. Within that amount of time not one Iraqi target went un-bombed. So until you start showing me some evidence that you're not going to have access -- after we have just gone through this war -- then I'm not buying it.

Manufacturing and Technology News

I'm not saying Paul's take is wrong, just that we should always consider the source.