AP story on MRAP delay shows need for good journalism, whistleblowers

An Associated Press story about a leaked internal study that accuses the Marine Corps of delays in providing mine-resistant vehicles to its forces in Iraq provides ample reason why good journalism is a social and political must, government whistleblowers ought to be fully protected from retribution, and journalists should not be compelled to identify anonymous sources.

First, the news:

Hundreds of U.S. Marines have been killed or injured by roadside bombs in Iraq because Marine Corps bureaucrats refused an urgent request in 2005 from battlefield commanders for blast-resistant vehicles, an internal military study concludes.

The study claims that battlefield commanders asked for MRAP vehicles to replace Humvees because the latter — even with additional armor — did not fare well when struck by improvised explosive devices, leading to deaths and injuries of soldiers riding in them. MRAPs — 40-ton mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicles — have “V-shaped hulls that deflect blasts out and away from the vehicles,” says the AP story.

MRAPs were seen by bureaucrats, the study says, as too plodding for the rapid-deployment visions of Marine planners.

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