VCertainly when we went to Iraq we had armored vehicles. ,but the need was not foreseen that we would need armored Humvee's, then we found we could not place enough armor on a humvee to make it safe in all occasions and started making larger ,more armored vehicles.
Still, when we went into Iraq we went in with vehicles that were built long before the Bush administration . Why didnt the previous administration see this need, if if could have been foreseen.
The fact is the IED's being used to destroy our troops was not foreseen because the terribly deadly ones being used to explode under our vehicles werent being made at the time. The more deadly explosives are being designed by the Iranians faster than we can build vehicles capable of absorbing those explosions, and at what point does it become impossible to build a vehicle so capable.
Much the same thing happened in new Orleans. A storm came in that was almost impossible to be absorbed. The people in new Orleans and the Media and Bush bashers screamed for instant homes. What they got was 70,000 trailers built that are filled with formaldehyde and cant be used.
The screams are answered as best they can be. Because of the rapid and ill conceived planning we ended up with too many and maybe not as well designed as we should have gotten. Blaming it on one administration or another is only a foul plot by politicians to take advantage of a situation that arises. As the old saying goes" #### happens."
We do the best we can and pay the bills after.
Particularly when the enemy doesn't operate with ANY engagement rules, and your rules of engagement are so restricted you have to have a bayonet shoved up your ass before you can poke the ####er in the eye with your finger.
In the DOD it is called a "Congressional plus up" in the media it is called "pork". Half the time DOD doesn't even want the item, congress says "Buy it and here is the money."