LJ
Wake up and smell the coffee! Of course politics were involved in the purchase of the Mk128, isn't that what politicians do? If they want to get re-elected they don't sign up to deals that will make their constituents redundant, regardless of the topic.
As for buying the Macchi, if that deal had gone ahead then the 900 job losses at Brough would have been six years ago. Just because you didn't get the toy you wanted is no reason to throw them out of the cot and blame everyone else.
When it comes down to it, BAE is a business. If you don't act like a business you go under, and you have to sell things to do that. How many non-US built aircraft/tanks/ships does teh US military have? Virtually none, and that is because the US defence contractors have the whole thing sewn up. We as a country don't have a big enough military to support that.
P.S. your hated TMk1 is one of the few non-US designs in the US inventory as the T38 Goshawk, but they don't like to talk about it