A strange world : Jihadists in Iraq attack US troops Armor made in Israel

Arotech's armoring division is Israeli ... http://www.matimop.org.il/newrdinf/company/c5326.htm

and insurgent/jihadis in Iraq are attacking US troop vehicles which need armoring...and the Israeli company gets the armoring contract...

Arotech Receives $1 Million Vehicle Armor Order from U.S. Army
Tuesday April 12, 9:05 am ET
Arotech's Armour of America Will Supply Armor Kits to Protect US Army Vehicles Operating in Iraq
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/050412/125501.html?.v=1

which brings this full circle ! Jihadist/Insurgents are now benefitting Israel by attacking US vehicles in Iraq.

Is this not a crazy world ?? Shouldn't someone tell the insurgents this isn't exactly helping their cause ??

BTW,

""According to Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a member of the Armed Services Committee who speaks out against pork-barrel spending, there is a total of $8.9 billion of pork in this year's defense bill, which would go a long way toward upgrading all the equipment used by the National Guard.""

from 'Bush chose tax cuts over armor: teenage soldiers die'
http://stevegilliard.blogspot.com/2004/10/bush-chose-tax-cuts-over-armor-teenage.html

You posted:

"Arotech's armoring division is Israeli ... and insurgent/jihadis in Iraq are attacking US troop vehicles which need armoring...and the Israeli company gets the armoring contract...

Arotech's Armour of America Will Supply Armor Kits to Protect US Army Vehicles Operating in Iraq which brings this full circle ! Jihadist/Insurgents are now benefitting Israel by attacking US vehicles in Iraq."

I am from the "Steel Valley" - that's the section of the Monongahela Valley that runs from South Side Pittsburgh (Hazlewood and South Side Pittsburgh Works of J and L Steel) through such USSteel "company towns" as Homestead, Braddock, Clairton, McKeesport, etc., past mile after mile of steel mills (now closed).

There used to be whole rolling mills dedicated to ARMOR PLATE - Naval Industrial Reserve Plants - like the one across Eighth Avenue from Mesta Machine Co. at the end of the Glenwood Bridge at the corner of Baldwin Rd and Glass Run Road. GONE - ALL GONE

About twenty five years ago DOD did a study of America's capability to make armor plate. There isn't any.

I came up in Coal and Steel country - raised on Arsenal Kolbassi and Isaly's "Chip Chop" - drank at Chiodo's and Frankie Gustine's - worked in "The Mills" while I was in college. GONE - ALL GONE

The "Materials Science Department" at my college used to teach "Ferrous metallurgy" (making steel) - now it teaches semiconductor solid state physics and composites - but not ferrous metallurgy or steel making. My text book used to be
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and now they use

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and as a result we can't make our own armor plate.

Yes - there are little "onsie-twosie" "Mom and Pop" foundries. But we have no real armor plate capability. This was predicted 25 years ago.

I do not see any Israeli conspiracy.

So what is your point?

In this case the more they shoot up US armored vehicles the more money the Israeli armoring company makes supporting the state of Israel.

Maybe if they didn't blow up IEDs and shoot up US vehicles in the first place they wouldn't end up supporting their enemy Israel. And if the media covered this ironic situation...well, we could bring our guys/gals back in one piece. Then we could figure out how to fight this outsourcing problem (and you described it pretty nicely, btw).

I'm not anti-Israel OR anti-Islam, just pointing out how stupid the violence is all around.

My point is that we have allowed so much of our industrial base - from simple consumer goods like knit shirts and pots and pans through basic commodities like steel - to consumer durables like cars and appliances and tv's to high end items like application specific integrated circuits and medical imaging equipment -- to all be offshored.

As a kid I used to "loaf" on East Eighth Avenue in the Steel Valley - and ride the 'Coasters at Kennywood (overlooking the Irwin Works of USSteel) and go on the "open house" tours of the GM plant in West Mifflin PA.

All gone - the high wage jobs (the jobs that paid for RV's and retirement in Florida and Arizona) the jobs that brought a safety net and dignity to the American working man and woman - and the jobs and industries that made the "Steel Valley" the "Arsenal of Democracy."

That's my youth- that Valley is my "Roots" - that's where my grandparents (and four of my great grand parents) came - straight from Ellis Island on the Pennsylvania Railroad from Jersey City. Gone. We can't even pour and roll our own armor plate.

The clip from biz.yahoo.com - even more then the mass mortgage foreclosures of the 1980's -- it was the thud of the soil of western Pennsylvania being shovelled into a grave.

I'm out here in Silicon Valley - but I'm still that kid from the Steel Valley. And "n-doped" and "p-doped" are part of my vocabulary - but "austenite" and "martensite" are still burned into my brain. And that clip was part of me dying.

And my old job was a service job with a mortgage company. I'm totally behind Lou Dobbs and his book is appropriately titled. Corporate greed is behind most of this. Another buddy of mine now a DUer from CT has been outsourced numerous times and we joined the battle to get Kerry elected. OH screwed it up.

But in the long run those Ohioans, just like those Floridians, will regret putting the Shrub in the White House. Look on the bright side, only a few short years to go...then we can have OUR candidate look after the people for a change.