Rare Earth Minerals--A Strategic Weakness

Here's an interesting story from the Defense News website, detailing the almost total reliance the US has on other countries to provide it with "rare earth oxides" critical to the construction and development of advanced weapon systems and sensors. Much of the story reads like a marketing pitch for "Molycorp Minerals", but aside from that, I'm not sure whether I'm more concerned that we currently import all of our rare earth minerals, or that China currently controls 98% of the world's known supply.

I know, I know--talk about China here and you're a knuckledragging war-monger trying to justify force-structure. But even the most pro-China view must consider our almost total reliance on the Middle Kingdom for these materials troubling from a strategic standpoint.

Bryan McGrath