U.S. Troops Finally to Get Vehicles that Protects them from IEDs

Why did it take so long? Many American soldiers would still be alive or have their limbs if these vehicles had been available when they were asked for:

The Pentagon has approved an Army recommendation for a 600% increase in production of Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles to protect soldiers from makeshift bombs in Iraq.

The unannounced decision Thursday to build as many as 17,770 MRAPs for the Army comes as Defense Secretary Robert Gates has made the vehicle the Pentagon's top priority. The MRAP's V-shaped hull and raised chassis are up to four times safer against the top threat to U.S. troops in Iraq — improvised explosive devices, or IEDs.

Bush and Congress need to answer the question as to why it took so long:

In a letter Thursday to Gates, Sens. Joseph Biden, D-Del., and Kit Bond, R-Mo., said MRAPs could have saved as many as 742 U.S. troops if they had been deployed when the Marines in Iraq's restive Anbar province filed an urgent request for 1,169 of the vehicles in February 2005.

Gates said Friday he was pushing industry and the military to build MRAPs faster: "For every month we delay, scores of young Americans are going to die."

Meanwhile, Americans continue to die needlessly:

Four U.S. soldiers and a Marine were killed Sunday during separate combat operations in Baghdad and Anbar province, west of the Iraqi capital, according to the U.S. military.