The time for cautious testing of devices that can save lives in a war zone is not while lives are being lost at a tragic rate.

Improvised explosive devices, called IEDs, have caused more than half the U.S. combat deaths in Iraq. Nearly a year ago, a Pentagon task force endorsed development of a vehicle known by another acronym, JIN, that had the capacity to explode the roadside bombs through a directed electrical charge.

To date, not a single "Joint IED Neutralizer" has been dispatched to the front. What's the problem here?

It's the Department of Defense bureaucracy, which has ignored the task force's proposal that prototypes be sent to Iraq for testing by U.S. troops.

The current tentative approach is appropriate for peacetime testing, certainly not now. Troops whose convoys go through the highways and streets of Iraq are constantly at risk.

The Marine Corps has the right idea: Officers recently opted out of the testing schedule and will send JIN units to the cities of Fallujah and Ramadi, notorious danger zones.

When is the rest of the Pentagon going to follow suit? Defense has failed appallingly to protect soldiers in combat by being sluggish in providing sufficient body armor for soldiers and adequate armor for transport vehicles.

You'd think by now that the top brass would have learned the lesson.