Bittersweet Iraq Success Story

The good news is that roadside bomb fatalities this month are down by almost 90 percent from the last year, largely as a result of almost 7,000 heavily armored Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles being rushed to Iraq since then.

The sad news is that four months ago members of Congress were seeking whistle-blower protection for a Pentagon analyst who claimed that hundreds of lives could have been saved if military paper pushers hadn't obstructed delivery of those vehicles three years earlier.

In February, a former Marine official named Franz J. Gayl went public with a report accusing the Corps of "gross mismanagement" in delaying deliveries of the mine-resistant, ambush-protected trucks for more than two years because MRAPs, which cost $1 million each, were a financial threat to programs aimed at developing lighter vehicles that were years away from being fielded.

Hundreds of lives were lost, Gayl asserted, as requests of field commanders were buried in bureaucratic paperwork until Defense Secretary Robert Gates made them the No. 1 priority in 2007 after he replaced Donald Rumsfeld.

Gayl's revelations were greeted with Marine Corps denials. quibbles and promises of investigation.

Sens. Ted Kennedy and Claire McCaskill wrote Commandant James Conway that he seemed more focused on whether Gayl overstepped his authority than protecting him from retribution:

"Your statement today that the Marines Corps is investigating whether Mr. Gayl 'has done something other than what his leadership and his bosses have instructed him to do' clearly implies that the Marine Corps may be proceeding inappropriately to punish Mr. Gayl for his actions."

Two months later, Secretary Gates was telling USA Today: "The reaction of the troops in the field has been extraordinary...I had a wounded warrior who was here for a lunch a couple of weeks ago who was going around telling anybody who looked like they were in a position of authority that an MRAP had saved his life."

What happened to Franz J. Gayl? Google sayeth not, but lives and limbs are being saved in Iraq, at least in some measure because he spoke out. Many Marines and their families must feel differently about him than the top brass.