You should make sure that you have the userland tools installed. This package is called 'iproute' on both RedHat and Debian, and may otherwise be found at ftp://ftp.inr.ac.ru/ip-routing/iproute2-2.2.4-now-ss??????.tar.gz".
You can also try here for the latest version.
Some parts of iproute require you to have certain kernel options enabled. It should also be noted that all releases of RedHat up to and including 6.2 come without most of the traffic control features in the default kernel.
RedHat 7.2 has everything in by default.
Also make sure that you have netlink support, should you choose to roll your own kernel. Iproute2 needs it.