Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
CNN
February 26, 2008
Lou Dobbs Tonight (CNN), 7:00 PM
LOU DOBBS: The war in Iraq remains a major issue both on and off the campaign trail. The Marine Corps tonight has called for an investigation into charges of gross mismanagement of a program to send mine resistant vehicles to Iraq to protect our troops. A Marine Corps technology expert says delays in that program led to hundreds of casualties in Iraq, casualties that could have otherwise been prevented.
Jamie McIntyre has our report from the Pentagon.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Back in the beginning of 2005 in response to increasingly deadly IED attacks in Iraq, a two-star Marine Corps commander dispatched a critical request to the Pentagon -- send more MRAPS. This form dated February 17, 2005, published in a just released report shows the major general asks for more than 1,000 of the heavily armored vehicles and marked the request urgent, needed ASAP. But his superiors, including now-retired Marine Corps Commandant Michael Hagee didn't think the threat was that dire.
BRIG. GEN. JOHN CASTELLAW, DEPUTY COMMANDANT FOR PROGRAMS: I'll just say that General Hagee was in theater every two to three months personally assessing the situation.
MCINTYRE: General Hagee and his staff decided bolting more armor on Humvees would be good enough. It was not. The miscalculation was tacitly admitted last summer, more than a year later when Defense Secretary Robert Gates ordered hundreds move MRAPS to Iraq as a top priority. At the time the Marine Corps was still in denial.
CASTELLAW: We feel very comfortable that the process that we have in place allows us to keep pace with this threat.
MCINTYRE: It was just that kind of explanation that sparked a scathing rebuke from a civilian advisor to the Corps, Franz Gayl, who wrote in his January report -- this culture has been criminally negligent in a way that has led directly to the unnecessary loss of hundreds of American and innocent Iraqi lives and countless serious injuries.
The Marines immediately disputed the report's conclusions and pointed out it was one critic's opinion, albeit one inside the Corps. But now to answer congressional outrage, Assistant Commandant General Robert Magnus, has requested an independent investigation by the Pentagon's inspector general, in particular, of Gayl's most serious allegations of gross mismanagement and possible criminal negligence. (END VIDEOTAPE)
MCINTYRE: Now the Marine Corps acknowledges its decisions in a time of war are subject to scrutiny and debate and in hindsight may strike some as unwise. But what rankles some of the senior leadership is the allegation that their judgments were so flawed that their incompetence was so great as to constitute a crime. And Lou, in appointing and ordering an investigation of themselves, they are hoping to be cleared of that charge -- Lou?
DOBBS: You know it's a shame if they think that's the greatest charge of all within that, that it's a crime because the charge that their ignorance led to the loss of American lives is the most severe and serious charge, I would hope, on their minds. Because not only did these leaders in the Pentagon, in the Marine Corps and the United States Army fail in bringing in MRAPS to Iraq in time and expediently as possible, they also failed to up-armor those Humvees in a timely fashion as well, costing lives and casualties again.
This military leadership is not, in my judgment, Jamie McIntyre -- they have no basis to worry about a crime. They should worry about simply carrying out their duty to the men and women who are serving this nation so honorably.
MCINTYRE: Well, the Marine officials in charge here believe that they were reading the situation on the ground and adapting. And, of course, the criticism is that they failed to grasp and adapt fast enough. And I think in retrospect, you can look at it and say, that was clearly the case. The question is were reasonable people making reasonable judgments at the time or was there a real lapse of judgment here?
And this is unusual because the Pentagon Inspector General normally looks at you know instances of crime or misconduct or wrongdoing, bribes, that sort of thing. What they're really asking here is for someone to render a judgment on their judgment. Was it sufficient given the information they had at the time?
DOBBS: When we are not doing the utmost for our men and women in combat, the judgment is rather straightforward and it should be, in my opinion, immediate. It has not been through the conduct of most of this war, unfortunately. Jamie, thank you very much. And by the way, in terms of hindsight, we have been reporting on this very issue on this broadcast now for just about three years, Jamie, and relying on much of that for your reporting.
Mr. McIntyre, Jamie McIntyre from the Pentagon, thank you.
February 26, 2008
Lou Dobbs Tonight (CNN), 7:00 PM
LOU DOBBS: The war in Iraq remains a major issue both on and off the campaign trail. The Marine Corps tonight has called for an investigation into charges of gross mismanagement of a program to send mine resistant vehicles to Iraq to protect our troops. A Marine Corps technology expert says delays in that program led to hundreds of casualties in Iraq, casualties that could have otherwise been prevented.
Jamie McIntyre has our report from the Pentagon.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Back in the beginning of 2005 in response to increasingly deadly IED attacks in Iraq, a two-star Marine Corps commander dispatched a critical request to the Pentagon -- send more MRAPS. This form dated February 17, 2005, published in a just released report shows the major general asks for more than 1,000 of the heavily armored vehicles and marked the request urgent, needed ASAP. But his superiors, including now-retired Marine Corps Commandant Michael Hagee didn't think the threat was that dire.
BRIG. GEN. JOHN CASTELLAW, DEPUTY COMMANDANT FOR PROGRAMS: I'll just say that General Hagee was in theater every two to three months personally assessing the situation.
MCINTYRE: General Hagee and his staff decided bolting more armor on Humvees would be good enough. It was not. The miscalculation was tacitly admitted last summer, more than a year later when Defense Secretary Robert Gates ordered hundreds move MRAPS to Iraq as a top priority. At the time the Marine Corps was still in denial.
CASTELLAW: We feel very comfortable that the process that we have in place allows us to keep pace with this threat.
MCINTYRE: It was just that kind of explanation that sparked a scathing rebuke from a civilian advisor to the Corps, Franz Gayl, who wrote in his January report -- this culture has been criminally negligent in a way that has led directly to the unnecessary loss of hundreds of American and innocent Iraqi lives and countless serious injuries.
The Marines immediately disputed the report's conclusions and pointed out it was one critic's opinion, albeit one inside the Corps. But now to answer congressional outrage, Assistant Commandant General Robert Magnus, has requested an independent investigation by the Pentagon's inspector general, in particular, of Gayl's most serious allegations of gross mismanagement and possible criminal negligence. (END VIDEOTAPE)
MCINTYRE: Now the Marine Corps acknowledges its decisions in a time of war are subject to scrutiny and debate and in hindsight may strike some as unwise. But what rankles some of the senior leadership is the allegation that their judgments were so flawed that their incompetence was so great as to constitute a crime. And Lou, in appointing and ordering an investigation of themselves, they are hoping to be cleared of that charge -- Lou?
DOBBS: You know it's a shame if they think that's the greatest charge of all within that, that it's a crime because the charge that their ignorance led to the loss of American lives is the most severe and serious charge, I would hope, on their minds. Because not only did these leaders in the Pentagon, in the Marine Corps and the United States Army fail in bringing in MRAPS to Iraq in time and expediently as possible, they also failed to up-armor those Humvees in a timely fashion as well, costing lives and casualties again.
This military leadership is not, in my judgment, Jamie McIntyre -- they have no basis to worry about a crime. They should worry about simply carrying out their duty to the men and women who are serving this nation so honorably.
MCINTYRE: Well, the Marine officials in charge here believe that they were reading the situation on the ground and adapting. And, of course, the criticism is that they failed to grasp and adapt fast enough. And I think in retrospect, you can look at it and say, that was clearly the case. The question is were reasonable people making reasonable judgments at the time or was there a real lapse of judgment here?
And this is unusual because the Pentagon Inspector General normally looks at you know instances of crime or misconduct or wrongdoing, bribes, that sort of thing. What they're really asking here is for someone to render a judgment on their judgment. Was it sufficient given the information they had at the time?
DOBBS: When we are not doing the utmost for our men and women in combat, the judgment is rather straightforward and it should be, in my opinion, immediate. It has not been through the conduct of most of this war, unfortunately. Jamie, thank you very much. And by the way, in terms of hindsight, we have been reporting on this very issue on this broadcast now for just about three years, Jamie, and relying on much of that for your reporting.
Mr. McIntyre, Jamie McIntyre from the Pentagon, thank you.