My old friend Bryan Bender had an interesting story today in the Boston Globe on a new initiative within the Pentagon to oversee the inner workings of the Joint IED Defeat Organization.
It looks as if the Pentagon wants to get its arms around the incredible number of projects JIEDDO is working on and to better account for the billions of dollars being spent each year on countermeasures and anti-IED tactics.
(See the Pentagon Memorandum here)
The IED Task Force will be co-chaired by retired Army Lt. Gen. Paul Funk, whom Bender reports is a noted Iraq war critic. Funk commanded the 3rd Armored Division during the Gulf War and has been a semi-frequent guest on news talk shows criticizing the administrations rush to war.
Coming on the heels of reports that the White House is having a hard time finding someone to become its War Czar, it seems the administration is running out of reliable allies even to honcho top military programs.
Well see if the Task Force can help the military come to grips with the deadly counter-IED problem.
-- Christian
