Report: Anti-IED Fight Still Needs Work

The Pentagon’s multi-billion-dollar effort to fight improvised explosive devices may have made progress in fighting the biggest killer of troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, but it’s too soon to declare victory, said Rep. Vic Snyder (D-Ark.), who as chairman of the House Armed Services Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee led an inquiry into the Pentagon’s Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization.

“We’ve made a huge investment in countering and defeating IEDs, but we still can’t say that the effort has been successful,” Snyder said.

The organization started as an ad-hoc response to a battlefield threat, but the Pentagon has begun to make it more permanent.

“The question now before us is where JIEDDO as an organization should go next,” said Rep. Todd Akin of Missouri, the subcommittee’s ranking Republican.