During last night's debate, Barack Obama took a moment to remind us about how engaging in a war in Iraq might have hurt our ability to fight the war in Afghanistan:
You know, I've heard from an Army captain who was the head of a rifle platoon -- supposed to have 39 men in a rifle platoon. Ended up being sent to Afghanistan with 24 because 15 of those soldiers had been sent to Iraq.
And as a consequence, they didn't have enough ammunition, they didn't have enough humvees. They were actually capturing Taliban weapons, because it was easier to get Taliban weapons than it was for them to get properly equipped by our current commander in chief.
This anecdote enraged righty blogs for the obvious reasons. What? No, no, not because it showed that our engagement in Iraq has been a critical diversion in fighting the war on terror -- come on, what righty thinks that? No, it enraged them because a few of them saw minor inconsistencies that proved Obama was totally making this up and that our military was totally and absolutely fine, maybe even better than fine, thanks to Iraq.
I'm not going to post all of the jibber-jabber, but this post from Flopping Aces gives the general gist of it:
First of all, and correct me if I’m wrong on this Chris (seeing as how I’ve been out for 18 years) but the military rarely splits a platoon across theaters, maybe companies but platoons? Nope…..Secondly, Captains don’t lead platoons, they lead companies. Thirdly, on the weapons thing it may very well because the AK is just a damn good desert weapon that rarely jams PLUS having a weapon that sounds like the enemies and doesn’t sound like one of our M16’s is probably a pretty good tactic. They may be grabbing the AK’s but I’m doubting its because they are not getting supplied. Fourth, if they are so underequipped how in the hell are they able to capture all these weapons in the first place? Just going up and asking the Taliban for em?
Yeah! See, there are a few question in Curt's mind about this anecdote, therefore it's completely false! And there's no way anyone can prove...
*knock knock*
Who's that? Oh, hey folks, it's ABC News' Jake Tapper! What's that you say? There is an actual way you could verify this? But how?
I called the Obama campaign this morning to chat about this story, and was put in touch with the Army captain in question.
He told me his story, which I found quite credible, though for obvious reasons he asked that I not mention his name or certain identifying information.
Short answer: He backs up Obama's story.
Oh.
But what about the fact that only lieutenants...
Prior to deployment the Captain -- then a Lieutenant -- took command of a rifle platoon at Fort Drum.
But Curt says they don't split platoons...
When he took command, the platoon had 39 members, but -- in ones and twos -- 15 members of the platoon were re-assigned to other units. He knows of 10 of those 15 for sure who went to Iraq, and he suspects the other five did as well.
The platoon was sent to Afghanistan with 24 men.
"We should have deployed with 39," he told me, "we should have gotten replacements. But we didn't. And that was pretty consistent across the battalion."
And the guns...
"The purpose of going after the Taliban was not to get their weapons," he said, but on occasion they used Taliban weapons. Sometimes AK-47s, and they also mounted a Soviet-model DShK (or "Dishka") on one of their humvees instead of their 50 cal.
Oh.
I, for one, think we should have snuck by his house to see if he had granite countertops.
Wingnutosphere, Attack!
During last night's debate, Barack Obama took a moment to remind us about how engaging in a war in Iraq might have hurt our ability to fight the war in Afghanistan:
This anecdote enraged righty blogs for the obvious reasons. What? No, no, not because it showed that our engagement in Iraq has been a critical diversion in fighting the war on terror -- come on, what righty thinks that? No, it enraged them because a few of them saw minor inconsistencies that proved Obama was totally making this up and that our military was totally and absolutely fine, maybe even better than fine, thanks to Iraq.
I'm not going to post all of the jibber-jabber, but this post from Flopping Aces gives the general gist of it:
Yeah! See, there are a few question in Curt's mind about this anecdote, therefore it's completely false! And there's no way anyone can prove...
*knock knock*
Who's that? Oh, hey folks, it's ABC News' Jake Tapper! What's that you say? There is an actual way you could verify this? But how?
Oh.
But what about the fact that only lieutenants...
But Curt says they don't split platoons...
And the guns...
Oh.
I, for one, think we should have snuck by his house to see if he had granite countertops.
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You know, I've heard from an Army captain who was the head of a rifle platoon -- supposed to have 39 men in a rifle platoon. Ended up being sent to Afghanistan with 24 because 15 of those soldiers had been sent to Iraq.
And as a consequence, they didn't have enough ammunition, they didn't have enough humvees. They were actually capturing Taliban weapons, because it was easier to get Taliban weapons than it was for them to get properly equipped by our current commander in chief.
This anecdote enraged righty blogs for the obvious reasons. What? No, no, not because it showed that our engagement in Iraq has been a critical diversion in fighting the war on terror -- come on, what righty thinks that? No, it enraged them because a few of them saw minor inconsistencies that proved Obama was totally making this up and that our military was totally and absolutely fine, maybe even better than fine, thanks to Iraq.
I'm not going to post all of the jibber-jabber, but this post from Flopping Aces gives the general gist of it:
First of all, and correct me if I’m wrong on this Chris (seeing as how I’ve been out for 18 years) but the military rarely splits a platoon across theaters, maybe companies but platoons? Nope…..Secondly, Captains don’t lead platoons, they lead companies. Thirdly, on the weapons thing it may very well because the AK is just a damn good desert weapon that rarely jams PLUS having a weapon that sounds like the enemies and doesn’t sound like one of our M16’s is probably a pretty good tactic. They may be grabbing the AK’s but I’m doubting its because they are not getting supplied. Fourth, if they are so underequipped how in the hell are they able to capture all these weapons in the first place? Just going up and asking the Taliban for em?
Yeah! See, there are a few question in Curt's mind about this anecdote, therefore it's completely false! And there's no way anyone can prove...
*knock knock*
Who's that? Oh, hey folks, it's ABC News' Jake Tapper! What's that you say? There is an actual way you could verify this? But how?
I called the Obama campaign this morning to chat about this story, and was put in touch with the Army captain in question.
He told me his story, which I found quite credible, though for obvious reasons he asked that I not mention his name or certain identifying information.
Short answer: He backs up Obama's story.
Oh.
But what about the fact that only lieutenants...
Prior to deployment the Captain -- then a Lieutenant -- took command of a rifle platoon at Fort Drum.
But Curt says they don't split platoons...
When he took command, the platoon had 39 members, but -- in ones and twos -- 15 members of the platoon were re-assigned to other units. He knows of 10 of those 15 for sure who went to Iraq, and he suspects the other five did as well.
The platoon was sent to Afghanistan with 24 men.
"We should have deployed with 39," he told me, "we should have gotten replacements. But we didn't. And that was pretty consistent across the battalion."
And the guns...
"The purpose of going after the Taliban was not to get their weapons," he said, but on occasion they used Taliban weapons. Sometimes AK-47s, and they also mounted a Soviet-model DShK (or "Dishka") on one of their humvees instead of their 50 cal.
Oh.
I, for one, think we should have snuck by his house to see if he had granite countertops.
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