Delay in MRAP Armored Vehicle Approvals Cost American Lives in Iraq War

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, written by a civilian Marine Corps official and obtained by The Associated Press, accuses the service of "gross mismanagement" that delayed deliveries of the trucks for more than two years.

Cost was a driving factor in the decision to turn down the request for the MRAPs — an acronym for mine-resistant, ambush-protected — according to the study. Stateside authorities saw the hulking vehicles, which can cost as much as a $1 million each, as a financial threat to programs aimed at developing lighter vehicles that were years from being fielded.