Swiss delay of military parts sparks 'buy American' push

Washington Times ^ | Friday, July 25, 2003 | By Bill Gertz

[JohnHuang2]

A Swiss company's refusal to provide critical parts for the Pentagon's flagship Joint Direct Attack Munition during the Iraq war shows the need for "buy American" laws, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee said yesterday.

Rep. Duncan Hunter, California Republican, also said Switzerland, a neutral nation, blocked delivery of grenades to British military forces during the conflict because it opposed the war.

[JohnHuang2]

Friday, July 25, 2003

Quote of the Day by Paul Atreides

[Vets_Husband_and_Wife]

Time to buy only AMERICAN CHEESE???? No more SWISS Army knives??? Hmmmm????

[maui_hawaii]

Only one American machine tool company can handle military milling requirements, he said, and only one American-owned company makes military aircraft tires.

And why couldn't this change? We definately need our own defense industry.

Hell, we can buy parts from Swiss companies...thats fine...just so long as they are incorporated in the US and manufacture what they sell to the US in the US. If they don't deliver, then we can sue their ass for everything including the trouble.

[Libertina]

A good example of loyalty to one's nation trumping raw capitalism. And I agree. JohnHuang2, you are certainly in your nightly posting frenzy :) Thank you!

[squidly]

Duncan Hunter is one of the few GOPers in D.C. with whom I am finding myself in consistent agreement.

[Pro-Bush]

Here is the A-Hole nicolas hayek. Like I'd ever buy a swatch-watch anyway!

[JohnHuang2]

;-)

[autoresponder]

Like Berrata has US factories.

Good point.

The Swiss were not that picky in WWII although they claimed neutrality.

Let 'em yodel to themselves; time "French" their US tourism!

I wonder how the would like our French & German product boycotts?

[autoresponder]

Berreta

not Berr(a)ta

dumb as a bag of rocks tonight

[lelio]

Duncan Hunter was on Lou Dobb's CNN show this evening, very well spoken and serious about this subject.
The Swiss position on the Iraq war not only affected our JDAM bomb, but also the British. They had to go in without a shipment of 10,000 grenades due to Switzerland's position on the war.
What's amazing about this is that defense companies are complaining that this will cost the taxpayers more money. Huh? The $600 toliet seat industry is now suddenly caring about costs to the taxpayer?
Its also somewhat amusing to see Boeing complain about the Buy American plan, while also wanting to keep out Airbus from bidding for defense department contracts.

[harpseal]

Right now it is Swiss components that we were able to replace with American components that were not available for critical weapons systems. What happens whenthere is no longer an American company producing necessary components and we are in a conflict where the suppliers home nation will not supply parts? American troops will die unecessarily.

Let us remember it has not been all that long since a Chinese General was talking about Chinese nuclear weapons being detonated over American cities. Let us also remeber that the Chinese view their engineering and development provider agreements as a means of modernizing their military.

If we do not have independence for our defence industry then we do not have a viable defense.

[LibertyAndJusticeForAll]

I'm sure the U.S. can make anything for less than the Swiss, everything they make is overpriced.
Even if Asia can make stuff for less; we cannot afford to have DoD dependent upon foreign nations.

[hedgetrimmer]

Haven't many of the patriots posting to this forum been saying this would happen all along?

[samuel_adams_us]

If the white house is not for this, it might be time for someone new in the whitehouse.

[samuel_adams_us]

With Bush and company making stupid mistakes like this, who couldn't win the presidential election against him in 2004?

[lelio]

Here is the A-Hole nicolas hayek

Why the name calling? He's standing up for what his country believes in. Its our fault for dealing with foreign companies for our national defense in the first place.

[Pro-Bush]

Why the name calling?

They stopped shipping a piece of the JDAM bomb kit, which was a very critical component of ours. That equals Americans lives being taken. Surprised you can't grasp that. The Swiss, as usual, had no involvement, it was that a-hole nicolas hayek!

[lelio]

Surprised you can't grasp that.

You must of missed the 2nd part of my post:
Its our fault for dealing with foreign companies for our national defense in the first place.

[RockyMtnMan]

Haven't many of the patriots posting to this forum been saying this would happen all along?

Your going to piss off the free-traders, because the only reason to trade is for corporate economic gain and not domestic growth and security. We can't have the government getting in the way of profits for any reason, that would be too protectionist. /sarcasm

[lelio]

Another way to think of this is the parable of helping a snake across the river. He swears that he's not going to bite you once you both get across. Of course, he does bite you and says "What do you expect, I'm a snake."
Likewise when you deal with a foreign country for a military weapon when that country expresses neutrality in conflicts. What on earth were we expecting would happen?
There's two reasons to deal with non-American companies in defense contracts: if they produce something that we can't (which is debatable in most cases) or if we want to spread the love and think that trading will cause less conflicts. That might be true till you're dealing with fanatics, like the ChiComs.