December 28, 2007: The U.S. Army and Marines are trying to back out of commitments to buy thousands of are armored trucks (MRAPS), Congress gave them $17.6 billion (50 percent more money than originally requested.) That's good politics. But with violence rapidly declining in Iraq (and never that high in Afghanistan to begin with), the 17,000 MRAPs the politicians promised to buy are now being seen as a long term liability. These 12-20 ton trucks are harder to maintain than hummers, are not very good off roads, and are too heavy for over 70 percent of the world's bridges. The troops fear getting stuck with these behemoths, to the exclusion of new weapons and gear that are more needed.