Since late 2003, the IED has been the most pressing tactical threat to American forces in Iraq. Now, via the Danger Room, we’re seeing two positive signs that the IED threat has been mitigated–though certainly not yet neutralized. First, Noah Shachtman reports on the decision to cut the budget for JIEDDO, the Joint IED Defeat Organization:
Not too long ago, if a Congressman dared to withhold cash from the war effort — especially funds for fighting improvised bombs — he would’ve been blasted as a traitor. But the politics of Iraq and Afghanistan have shifted, in all sorts of ways. And so lawmakers now feel safe in taking a whack at the Pentagon’s controversial bomb-stopping group, the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization, or JIEDDO. Inside Defense reports that the agency’s $500 million budget for next year has been slashed by about 75 percent, to $120 million, in Congress’ joint appropriations report.
I think we can safely say that JIEDDO has had little to do with the recent decline in casualties, and, apparently, neither has the Pentagon’s push for more mine resistant ambush protected (MRAP) vehicles. Here Jason Sigger, also writing at Danger Room, quotes from Defense News:
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