Expensive... Tallying US Lives Or Dollars?

	Who is making the evaluations, judgments and decisions that cost American lives? It appears that bureaucrats and bean counters are running the logistics of WWIII.
The Pentagon announced that US troops serving in Iraq will receive at least 1,000 fewer special armored vehicles than were expected during 2007.
Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said the Defense Department expected contractors to produce 3,900 Mine Resistant Ambush Protected, MRAP, vehicles this year. However only 1,500 vehicles will be shipped to the Iraq war zone. The Pentagon's target shipment was 2,500 to 3,000.
Following the newly reduced goal being reported in Stars & Stripes, the Pentagon's Morrell said, "If we could get 1,500 to theater by the end of this year, that would be a positive development".
MRAP vehicles are one of the Pentagon's top acquisition priorities. The Defense Department's goal has been to buy as many as can be produced. That plan follows years of criticism of the Pentagon for not providing adequate armor to troops.
The MRAP has a V-shaped hull specifically designed to protect troops from roadside bombs. Those roadside explosive devices have been and continue to be responsible for a major percentage of deaths and maiming in the Iraqi and Afghanistan battlefronts of WWIII.
The Pentagon's Morrell stated that it takes about 50 days to equip and ship a finished MRAP to the middle east. That consists of 15 days for equipping and 35 for transport by ship.
According to Morrell, the Pentagon has been flying some MRAPs to the war zone.
Morrell added that due to the number of MRAPs planned for production, it will be more *cost effective* to send them by ship rather than air -- even though it takes longer to deliver them to the Americans who are daily defending and dying for our homeland.
Morrell said he did not know which units in Iraq would be affected by the production shortfall this year.
Who cares? Morrell and his coworkers at the Pentagon get paid the same and go home every evening regardless of how much protection gets delivered to the brave troops fighting and dying for Morrell's homeland.