December 1, 2003 - World War II was won in the factories of America more than on European and Asian battlefields. Iron ore and coal fed the blast furnaces. Steel fed the assembly lines. The tanks, trucks, guns and planes rolled into history. It was American industry that provided the tools to steel the will of the men of the allied armies slogging across Europe and hitting the beaches of Okinawa . Victory was built in the Mesabi Range; in Pittsburg ; and in Detroit . The lesson of that era - that National Security is crafted on the factory floor - seems to have been forgotten. Industry after industry, basic to the security of the nation, have been dismantled and shipped beyond our borders. Instead of maintaining the Arsenal of Democracy we enter the 21 st Century as a mere market place, dependent on foreign industry, foreign investment and foreign goods.

We don't manufacture cars anymore; we assemble them from foreign parts and foreign steel. The boxes that went out the Best Buy door in the first rush of Christmas Sales contained electronics made in China or Malaysia - even those with Japanese or Korean brand names. We buy clothing sewed abroad from textiles woven abroad from fiber manufactured or grown abroad. Just look at the labels as you do your patriotic duty and shop 'til you drop. You will see first hand the result of a short sighted industrial policy followed by the administrations of both parties since Nixon - a policy that kept the boardrooms but exported the factory floors.

What you see when you look at the labels you are looking at America 's national security. From the uniforms they wear to the tanks and hummers they drive to the electronics that control the weapons they fire, America 's soldiers are as dependent on foreign industry as is the domestic economy. Ironically we have exported the Arsenal of Democracy.

It is the result of substituting politics for policy. When the Bush Administration decided to ignore its free trade rhetoric and impose a selective tariff on imported steel it used political calculus risking a trade war in its quests for votes in Pittsburg , Youngstown and Morgantown . Now it is ready to repeal those tariffs to court Detroit voters. When the Steelworkers whose votes were the target of the tariffs endorsed Richard Gephardt in August the decision to lift the protection for the steel industry was made. At best the Bush flirtation with protectionalism has been a pale substitute for a comprehensive industrial policy designed to rebuild America 's industrial base.