For over 18-months, the Marine Corps never responded to a “priority 1 urgent” request for sending more blast resistant vehicles to Iraq. On the eve of congress caving into Bush by writing him a blank check for war, a new document provides insight on how the military ignored an important request to help safeguard our troops:
According to a Marine Corps document provided to DANGER ROOM, the request for over 1,000 Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles came in February, 2005. A formal call to fulfill that order did not emerge until November, 2006. “There is an immediate need for an MRAP vehicle capability to increase survivability and mobility of Marines operating in a hazardous fire area against known threats,” the 2005 “universal need statement” notes.
Back then — as now — improvised explosive devices, or IEDs — represented the deadliest threat to American troops in the region. “The expanded use” of these bombs “requires a more robust family of vehicle capable of surviving the IED… threat,” the document adds. “MRAP-designed vehicles represent a significant increase in their survivability baseline over existing motor vehicle equipment and will mitigate… casualties resulting from IED[s].”
Over 1,300 U.S. soldiers have been killed by IEDs.
