thedrifter
09-04-07, 03:21 PM
Pentagon slow to spend on safety for US troops in Iraq
AFP via Yahoo! News
The Pentagon often has dragged its feet or refused to spend on safer equipment for US troops in Iraq, forcing the Congress to step in, a study published on Tuesday found.
The report published in USA Today came as a crucial report on the military situation is due within days in Washington.
Among many examples, the newspaper cited hesitance by US army officials to buy Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles despite eager requests from commanders in Iraq.
The acquisitions have become higher priorities since Robert Gates replaced Donald Rumsfeld as defense chief in December more than two years after the first request from Marines in Iraq.
The Defense Department said in August it had a tough time finding manufacturers and that it could only deliver to US troops in Iraq 1,500 such vehicles -- half the number due by the end of the year.
Faced with Pentagon heel-dragging, the US Congress boosted budgets by several billion dollars to better fund equipping troops in Iraq, USA Today said.
Lawmakers boosted by 5.2 billion dollars the budget George W. Bush's administration sought to armor Humvees used by the army in Iraq.
The USA Today report quoted Senator Joseph Biden as saying Rumsfeld "and many top administration officials believed the war would end quickly," so in their view, there was "surely no need to spend large amounts of money for equipment.
"The cost of ignoring the facts on the ground ... has been the lives and limbs of our sons and daughters," he said.
Ellie
AFP via Yahoo! News
The Pentagon often has dragged its feet or refused to spend on safer equipment for US troops in Iraq, forcing the Congress to step in, a study published on Tuesday found.
The report published in USA Today came as a crucial report on the military situation is due within days in Washington.
Among many examples, the newspaper cited hesitance by US army officials to buy Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles despite eager requests from commanders in Iraq.
The acquisitions have become higher priorities since Robert Gates replaced Donald Rumsfeld as defense chief in December more than two years after the first request from Marines in Iraq.
The Defense Department said in August it had a tough time finding manufacturers and that it could only deliver to US troops in Iraq 1,500 such vehicles -- half the number due by the end of the year.
Faced with Pentagon heel-dragging, the US Congress boosted budgets by several billion dollars to better fund equipping troops in Iraq, USA Today said.
Lawmakers boosted by 5.2 billion dollars the budget George W. Bush's administration sought to armor Humvees used by the army in Iraq.
The USA Today report quoted Senator Joseph Biden as saying Rumsfeld "and many top administration officials believed the war would end quickly," so in their view, there was "surely no need to spend large amounts of money for equipment.
"The cost of ignoring the facts on the ground ... has been the lives and limbs of our sons and daughters," he said.
Ellie