August 25, 2007 (LPAC)--The Pentagon's mad scramble to provide the urgently needed MRAP (mine resistant ambush protected) armored vehicles for troops in Iraq appears to be actually slowing down the production and shipping process. Earlier, this week, officials revealed that the Defense Department will fall short of its goal of shipping 3,500 vehicles to Iraq by about half. Maybe 1,500 of them will actually arrive by year's end.

Earlier this week, wire services reported that production companies that received the contracts for these vehicles had difficulties obtaining materials and parts. Today, the New York Times reported that the delay would be due to a decision to transport the vehicles by ship--a much cheaper method than the airlifts which could be used.

In reality, however, compared to Franklin Delano Roosevelt's "Arsenal of Democracy" that mobilized the full economic power of the United States, it is the Bush administration's obsession with outsourcing and profiteering from Pentagon contracts that is responsible for such delays.

Associated Press says that part of the problem is a bottleneck at the military's production facility in South Carolina where the vehicles are outfitted with military equipment. Michael Aldrich, vice president of Force Protection, Inc., one of the companies manufacturing MRAPs, told AP that the problems with the vehicles won't end with the late deliveries. "It's going to be exacerbated by a replacement parts nightmare trying to sustain these multiple vehicles," he said, "and it's going to be prohibitively expensive to keep doing that."

About 400 of the vehicles are in Iraq now against Pentagon orders for 6,415.