USA Today Op/Ed: Pentagon Dithering Turned U.S. Forces Into Sitting Ducks

[Hissyspit]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/pentagonditheringturnedusforcesintosittingducks

Opinion
Pentagon dithering turned U.S. forces into sitting ducks

Just when you think the poor planning and bad management that have characterized the Iraq war couldn't get any worse, a new outrage emerges.

On Monday, USA TODAY reported that the Pentagon has known for years that vehicles called MRAPs could keep U.S. troops safer from most roadside bombs, but until recently it did little to deploy the vehicles to Iraq, even as hundreds of Americans died. The Pentagon has numerous explanations for this. Planners didn't think the war would last this long. MRAPs are more expensive than armored Humvees. Adding armor to Humvees seemed like a quicker, better solution.

Not one of these excuses holds water.

- snip -

All along, though, the USA TODAY story pointed out, the Pentagon knew it had a much safer option than the Humvees. Experience has shown that the high-riding MRAPs can deflect the force of blasts that destroy Humvees, which have flat undersides that sit much closer to the ground and absorb blast forces.

The Defense Department could have launched a crash program as early as 2004 to build MRAPs and ship them to Iraq. It did not. Infuriatingly, officials approved construction of some MRAPs for Iraqi forces, while insisting that U.S. troops stick with armored Humvees. When Marines made an urgent request for 1,169 MRAPs in February 2005, the answer was to wait for development of a new combat vehicle — in 2012.

The Defense Department declined to provide an opposing view to this editorial for today's paper.

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[EFerrari]

1. They give the Pentagram too much credit. n/t

[Spinzonner]

2. Where are Rumsfeld's fingerprints on this ?

[KeepItReal]

3. Always remember to follow the money.... Are any of Bush & Co's buddies in the MRAP biz?

If Halliburton or Carlyle Group were in the MRAP-building business, they'd be cracking them out - no-bid-cost-plus contract style.

List of MRAP makers in the wiki entry below.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MRAP_(armored_vehicle)

[ninkasi]

4. Damn them

Damn every one of them. They lied in order to pursue whatever corrupt, twisted vision they had, and many, many men, women, and children, citizens of the U.S. or Iraq, have died. Many others have been so severely injured that they might have considered death a blessing.

For MONEY, for POWER, they have caused unimaginable suffering to hundreds of thousands of people. There is no punishment which can adequately fit the crime.

Damn them all to a hell I never believed in, until now.