The law is not some liberal nicety. It was passed in the mid-1980s after the near-disastrous experience with the Bradley Fighting Vehicle. The Army conducted tests that can only be described as "rigged." Col. James Burton, who headed the Pentagon's operational testing office, thought the vehicle was excessively vulnerable and insisted on more realistic tests—a demand that got him transferred to Alaska, until his plight came to the attention of certain legislators. After tremendous struggle, realistic tests were conducted; the vehicle was proved to be amazingly vulnerable; and fixes were made (luckily for the soldiers who manned the Bradleys in the 1991 Gulf war). After he retired, Burton chronicled the experience in his book The Pentagon Wars.