Sen. Susan Collins, and other members of the Armed Services Committee, took the Pentagon to the woodshed last week during an oversight hearing.

Collins complained that she was still getting reports of equipment shortages from soldiers in Iraq.

She read an e-mail from a Maine soldier that shows the lack of proper training for the occupation still hampers – and endangers – the gallant efforts of individual soldiers.

“We have tried to get ammo from other sources and through our proper chain of command. In this case we’ve been told to get Iraqi weapons and ammo as backup weapons. We’ve done this, but nobody’s very confident with this plan. We have very little training in their weapons. We are not qualified with the AK-47. We’ve not sighted these weapons and they’re not as reliable as our American weapons.”

Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz were appearing before the committee flush in the glow from Iraq’s elections. Instead, they got a pretty good grilling.

Gen. Myers said he would look into the lack of equipment.

Look into it? That’s not good enough.

If Collins knows about equipment problems, the military head of the armed forces and the Pentagon should definitely know about them. If they don’t, it’s an inexcusable oversight. If they do and are trying to hide the information from Congress and the American people, that’s almost criminal.

How, this far into the conflict, can the United States send fighting men and women into a combat zone without the ammunition, armor and – as hard as it is to believe – food and water they need?

As Collins said, this isn’t a question of money, and the issue of equipment shortages has come up again and again. The military, however, has reacted too slowly.

U.S. soldiers should not be forced to scavenge for discarded AK-47s to continue their missions. Nor should they go without food or ammunition. Collins is right to keep the pressure on, but it doesn’t seem to be doing any good.