Washington Times:

"If [the armed forces] build a new type of Humvee called an MRAP [Mine Resistant Ambush Protected] vehicle," he informed the union members, "there is four times less possibility of injury to a soldier inside that vehicle." This is crucial because 70 percent of American casualties in Iraq are caused by improvised explosive devices (IEDs), the roadway bombs that often detonate underneath the flat-bottom un-armored Humvees. MRAPs have a blast-resistant V-shaped hull that displaces much of the explosive power of IEDs. "We need 7,700 [MRAPs]," Mr. Biden continued. "We're only going to build 2,000 of them this year because it costs $8.5 billion," he said with evident disgust.
"What in the hell are we doing?" the senator demanded to know. "How can we justify anything, anything we do before we spend that money now to put these kids in those vehicles?" Because each MRAP transports four to 12 troops, accelerating this year's production by 2,500 vehicles would "affect from 10,000 to 30,000 lives in the next six months," he explained. "We're sitting here making no sacrifices, making no sounds about the urgency of doing that?"
For Mr. Biden, the issue proved to be much more than merely rhetorical. Later that night, on the floor of the United States Senate, Mr. Biden introduced an amendment to increase the production of MRAPs by 2,500 vehicles before Oct. 1.

The amendment passed 98-0.

UPDATE (9:23:PM): Jeff the Baptist (a better authority than me on this subject, I assure you) says "that actually making that many more vehicles in the next six months is probably nigh unto impossible. But hey he got a talking point out of it." Well, I guess Biden's heart is in the right place?

I guess the question now is why these are so long in coming.

Labels: Biden, Iraq

Posted by Ryan S. on Monday, April 02, 2007 at 2:28 PM | Permalink |