US Armored Vehicles Slow to Reach Iraq

Why after 4 years of war are our troops not supplied with the vehicles that would save their lives. Now we are being told that they have to wait until the end of the year before they can get any MRAPs. It is adding insult to injury. The Bushies put our soldiers in harm's way then refused to supply them with the necessary means to defend themselves. Remember the stories early on about troops having to go to junk yards to find scrap metal to reinforce Bradley fighting vehicles because they were inadequate against IED's? And as with the war in Iraq in general, it is incompetence and corruption that is at fault:

The Pentagon will fall far short of its goal of sending 3,500 lifesaving armored vehicles to Iraq by the end of the year. Instead, officials expect to send about 1,500.

Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said Wednesday that while defense officials still believe contractors will build about 3,900 of the mine-resistant, armor-protected vehicles by year's end, it will take longer for the military to fully equip them and ship them to Iraq.

[...]Earlier this year, production was a problem in the Pentagon's struggle to get more MRAPs to Iraq. In a late June report, the Defense Department's inspector general found that the Pentagon awarded contracts for the vehicles to companies that failed to produce them on time, despite knowing that there were other contractors who could have supplied some more quickly. Force Protection Industries was one of the companies in the report noted for delays.

The report concluded that those earlier problems "resulted in increased risk to the lives of soldiers."