Following the Money In Iraq

I recall Joe Biden staking his entire vote to fund the war in Iraq on the fact that we had to get these mine-resistant ambush protected (MRAP) vehicles to the troops to save lives. I wonder if he'll have anything to say about this:

U.S. troops in Iraq will receive at least 1,000 fewer special armored vehicles than expected this year due to the amount of time needed for shipment, the Pentagon said on Wednesday.

Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said the Defense Department expected defense contractors to produce 3,900 Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles this year. But only 1,500 would make it to the war zone -- down from the Pentagon's previous shipment target of 2,500 to 3,000.

"If we could get 1,500 to theater by the end of this year, that would be a positive development," Morrell said [...]

Morrell said it takes about 50 days to equip and ship a finished MRAP into the war zone. That includes 15 days for equipping and 35 for transport by ship.

This boggles the mind. During World War II we had a tank rolling off of the assembly lines by the tens of thousands. Today's military can't manage to get 1,500 into the theater of operations NEARLY FIVE YEARS after the beginning of war. This is a direct result of the horrible consequences of privatization, which contrary to popular belief creates plenty of corruption, as human greed and lax regulation creates a cocktail of waste and fraud.

A U.S. Army captain was charged on Thursday with accepting a $50,000 bribe to steer military contracts in Iraq, prosecutors said.

Austin Key, 27, of Watertown, N.Y., was stationed in Baghdad as a field ordering officer and oversaw the administration of service and supply contracts awarded by the U.S. Army worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Prosecutors accuse Key of demanding $125,000 from the owner of a business in order to protect the company's ability to win future contracts.

This happens in every war, but we have had practically no oversight for the majority of this conflict. And the people who bear the real brunt of that are our soldiers in the field, still waiting for the equipment that could protect them while the contractors get rich.