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TO GEN. JAMES T. CONWAY, for having the courage to do a sharp about-face and cut the Marine Corps’ request for bomb-resistant vehicles from 3,700 to 2,300.

The original plan was for every Marine outside the wire in Iraq to travel in a Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicle. Lawmakers, to their credit, quickly stepped up to the plate and pushed hard to get billions of dollars of funding for the MRAP program.

Which made it an even tougher call for the Corps’ commandant to admit this probably is not a good use of taxpayers’ money. But Conway’s decision was based on changing conditions and the recognition that the less-than-agile MRAP vehicles would risk the Corps’ ability to execute its core expeditionary mission.