but inferior products are being dumped on america. inferior product purchased to build and rebuild infrustructre such as bridges, etc.

just ask california about the oakland bridge fiasco.

How could we produce weapons or defend ourselves if we have to import the steel to do it?

Rather than fight wars in Iraq and elsewhere, we need to rebuild our industrial capacity so that we can defend ourselves.

And we need to work much harder to become as independent as possible of oil and gas.

as one suggested place to look.

in WWII, how women worked in munitions factories, how the country pulled together to win that war. No more. The corporations have done everything they possibly could to weaken our country and destroy our industry.

Our greatest military threat is our lack of adequate heavy industry. And it gets more threatening every year. It is naive to think we can continue to depend on foreign countries to provide the resources we need to maintain and improve our military readiness.

I agree completely with you that lack of heavy industry is a huge defense weakness.

you are aware that a significant percentage of US defence contracting goes to other countries? The Abrams tank's main gun is made by Rheinmetall (German), for instance. Standard-issue sidearms are made by Beretta (Italian) and SIG Sauer (Swiss/German); Special Forces use rifles made by FN (Belgium) and submachine guns made by H&K (Germany).