Editorial: Gaps in armor and planning

Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2006 | 9:20 a.m.

A Pentagon study confirms that the armor worn by combat troops in Iraq leaves many areas of the upper body vulnerable to bullets and shrapnel from IEDs, or improvised explosive devices. Since the beginning of the war in March 2003, the Defense Department has failed to supply soldiers and Marines with adequate armor for the body and a sufficient supply of armor for fighting vehicles.

The failure is a result of war planners in the Bush administration who grossly miscalculated the length and manner of resistance that U.S. troops would encounter, and who advocated going to war before civilian manufacturers had the contracts, designs and tooled-up machinery necessary for mass production of the type of armor necessary for urban combat.

In the Pentagon study on body armor, which was first revealed by the veterans group Soldiers for the Truth, and reported Friday and Saturday by news organizations, 93 fatal wounds in the upper bodies of Marines were examined. The New York Times obtained the study and reported on its findings in a story published Saturday.

Seventy-four of the fatal wounds, inflicted between the start of the war in Iraq through June 2005, struck the Marines in areas not protected by the body armor issued to them, the Times reported. The armor, worn by both Army and Marine forces, is constructed of ceramic plates and is vulnerable wherever the plates do not meet, including the sides and areas of the shoulders, back and chest.

From its examinations of the fatal wounds, the study concluded that as many as 80 percent of the Marines who have been killed in Iraq from wounds to the upper body could have survived if there had been no gaps in the armor, the Times reported. The gaps were designed to provide greater mobility for the troops, a benefit the Army and Marines considered essential despite the mounting casualties.

As the result of the Pentagon study, the Marine Corps is now gradually providing its troops with improved armor and the Army is planning to do so. No armor can ever be guaranteed to save lives in all situations. But it is tragic that the White House rushed to invade Iraq, which we now know posed no imminent threat, before properly designed armor was available for our troops.