Email this page to friends About the Author LtCol Oliver L. North is a nationally syndicated columnist and the honorary chairman of Freedom Alliance. An educational and charitable foundation, the Alliance was founded in 1990 by LtCol North, who now serves as the organization's honorary chairman. The committee works to promote freedom and liberty, support the American military and educate American youth on the military. Oliver North Column Archive The Freedom Alliance Website Sound Off! - Have an opinion about this column? Visit the Oliver North discussion forum. Fox News: War Stories - Get a glimpse of this show hosted by LtCol North. Mission Compromised - Read about LtCol North's latest novel. Ollie Items - Autographed copies of "Under Fire," mugs, pens, hats and more. Related Links Military Opinions Index Global War on Terror Terrorist Organizations Get Breaking Military News Alerts Get $985 a Month! Your service may have earned you great education benefits. Get up to $985 per month to pay for your undergraduate, graduate or technical degree. Find out about military-friendly schools today.

August 12, 2004

Washington, D.C. - When it comes to the war in Iraq, John Kerry has been steadfastly ambivalent. One day he's for it, the next day, he's not. In his own words, he voted for $87 billion to fund the war, before he voted against the same $87 billion. He has vehemently criticized the war in Iraq, but now says that he'd vote for it again. About the only statement on Iraq Mr. Kerry has made consistently is that he would "internationalize" the effort. Whatever "internationalize" means to Mr. Kerry, it's an unsettling and increasingly popular term. One need not be a wild eyed xenophobe to feel a certain sense of anxiety when it is used in sentences concerning our national security.

Mr. Kerry insists he can "win the peace" in Iraq by gaining more support from foreign countries. But the war isn't the only American dilemma Mr. Kerry believes would benefit from an "international" solution. On August 11, while campaigning in Nevada, Mr. Kerry announced that instead of storing dangerous nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, as recommended by years of study, planning and research conducted by the U.S. Department of Energy, we should instead establish an "international" panel to tell us how and where America should store its nuclear waste. Unfortunately, John Kerry isn't the only one in Washington who has found an "international solution" for many American challenges.

Just a few days ago, I returned from my fourth sojourn in Iraq for Fox News. During each trip to the war zone, I have seen U.S. Marines and soldiers employing 240G machine guns - made by Fabrique Nationale - a Belgian company. The "Two Forty Golf," as the troops refer to the weapon, is an excellent medium machine gun. It has now all but replaced the venerable American-made M-60 that was the U.S. weapon of choice from Vietnam to the first Gulf War. On their hips, nearly all American military personnel carry a 9mm pistol - made by Beretta, an Italian company. Like the 240-G, the Beretta sidearm is lighter and has a higher rate of fire than the weapon it replaced - the M-1911A1 .45 caliber pistol that saved my life in 1969.

Both the 240G machine gun and the Beretta 9mm pistol have their supporters and detractors and "old hands" can frequently be heard regaling the "new breed" of soldiers and Marines about the merits of the older, now discarded, U.S.-made weapons. But the problems inherent in buying foreign-made arms are far more complex and important than what one hears in an infantry chow line.

Ever since the Global War on Terror began in 2001, one of the key weapons in the U.S. arsenal has been the Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) - the remarkably accurate high-altitude, guided bomb that allows a precision attack on a specific target with minimum chance of collateral damage. Thousands of JDAMs have been used in Afghanistan and Iraq over the course of the last three years. Some of the Special Operations troops who participated in Operation Enduring Freedom maintain that the Taliban might still control Kabul if it weren't for the JDAMs delivered in support of their ground campaign. And during the first phase of Operation Iraqi Freedom, I witnessed countless examples of the weapon's pinpoint accuracy and effectiveness. Unfortunately, a crucial component of the JDAM was manufactured by a Swiss company, Micro Crystal. Because the Swiss opposed the war in Iraq, the government in Berne ordered the company to stop shipment of any more JDAM elements. It took several months for the Department of Defense to find alternative sources for the critical parts.

One might hope that the "international" experience with the JDAM would have been instructive to the Pentagon's procurement wizards; but apparently not. Last week the Department of Defense awarded a $6 billion contract to a consortium lead by Lockheed Martin to build a new Aerial Common Sensor (ACS) reconnaissance aircraft for the Army and Navy. The Pentagon could have chosen a competing bid that would have mounted our highly sensitive intelligence sensors on a U.S.-made Gulfstream jet - but went ahead and approved a Brazilian-French Embraer aircraft instead.

The Pentagon's "buy-international" enthusiasm for the ACS project will result in billions of U.S. dollars being spent to create thousands of jobs in other countries. Frank Larkin of the Association of Aerospace Workers says he is concerned "anytime taxpayer dollars are used to create good-paying jobs in countries like Brazil or Chile that are desperately needed here in the U.S." But even worse than the job and dollar transfer is the likelihood that very sensitive U.S. intelligence technology will be conveyed into foreign hands as well. When I asked a senior intelligence official about the prospect that such a technology transfer would take place during the construction of the ACS aircraft, he told me it was "inevitable."

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