Casualties of a scandal

When hundreds of Marines are killed or wounded in Iraq because their vehicles give them too little protection from improvised explosive devices, it is a tragedy. When those casualties are linked to negligence by the military bureaucracy, it is also a scandal that demands an investigation. That is exactly the situation as it now appears Marines have been denied a rapid upgrade to mine-resistant ambush-protected trucks, known as M-RAPs, for three years.

A recent military study obtained by the Associated Press reveals that as early as February 2005, Brig. Gen. Dennis Hejlik, commander in western Iraq, made an urgent request for more than 1,000 M-RAPs to end the "serious and grave casualties" being suffered by Marines. What happened next is a bureaucratic nightmare that ended in blood.

Vehicle acquisitions go through the Marine Corps' Combat Development Command, a civilian office that operates on a clunky "Cold War orientation," according to study author Franz Gayl, an adviser to the Marines. The urgency of Hejlik's request wasn't passed along by the chain of command, and the order languished. Some military officials wanted to design their own vehicle, a process that would take several years. Even after a call by Defense Secretary Robert Gates to make M-RAP deployment a priority, Marine decisionmaking dragged on.

Back in Iraq, lightly armored Humvees were sitting ducks for newly powerful IEDs. In just nine months, 150 soldiers in vehicles were killed and 1,500 were seriously injured by IEDs. Those casualties could have been reduced by 80 percent had the soldiers been traveling in M-RAPs, which are designed to deflect such blasts and are already manufactured by several vendors.

The situation "demonstrated that Marine Corps combat development organizations are not optimized to provide responsive, flexible and relevant solutions to commanders in the field," Gayl concluded. And he didn't stop there. "While the possibility of individual corruption remains undetermined, the existence of corrupted M-RAP processes is likely, and worthy of (the inspector general's) investigation."

Of course, truth-telling is not welcome in such bureaucracies. Gayl has sought to protect his job under a federal whistle-blower law. And the Marines have buried the report.

If the nation's military leaders want to retain any public support for the Iraq war, they need to convince Americans that they are taking every step possible to protect soldiers' lives. This report undermines the effort, and only a full and impartial investigation by Congress will restore trust.

[Last modified February 22, 2008, 22:33:20]