This whopper is failing the smell test...
Sources at TNR.
Have they changed my Army? I have never seen a Captain in charge of a platoon. It is the job of the Captain to be the Company Commander not a platoon leader. Platoon Leaders are LTs. Or am I wrong after serving over 25 years?
Actually, the story has a verifiable aspect: Obama gave a specific number of soldiers from the platoon who were assigned to Iraq, while the platoon was in Afghanistan.
It should be possible to find out whether there were ever any rifle platoons in Afghanistan with that number of soldiers normally attached to the platoon reassigned to units in Iraq.
I’m not military myself, but the whole thing seems implausible. Does the army ever reassign significant numbers of soliders from a unit that small, rather than reassigning the whole unit? I could see one or two with special competencies (oops, the Arabic speaker shouldn’t be sent to Afghanistan, or something like that), but I recall Obama asserted that something like 14 out of the supposed complement of 39 soliders were in Iraq, rather than Afghanistan with the unit.
This whopper is failing the smell test...
GET THE STRAIGHT SCOOP FROM GATEWAY PUNDIT:
“MISTAKEN MESSIAH!!... Taliban Story An Obamination! ...Update: Pentagon Refutes Obama ...Update 2: Conclusion: IT’S A LIE.
** Uses story from 2003 to slam military!”
Read all about it here:
http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2008/02/obamas-huge-mistake-taliban-story-obam.html#comments
Interesting to note that after the story broke ABC Snooze BLOG magical found the Captain, who of course refused to be named, and suddenly what the Captain said to Obama has been changed to magically fit military facts. Doesn’t change the fact there are gaping holes between what the Captain supposedly said and what Obama claims he said.
Bo Snerdley says, "Obama, prove it!"
Obama only reveals his own naivity saying what he said.
First, the President of the United States isn’t involved in the manning, equiping and supplying of units down to the level of platoon. What the President of the United States does, as Commander in Chief, is give his commanding officers orders and the support needed to carry out those orders. Between the President and the platoons of our ground forces are various levels of subordinate commanders and staff officers.
Second, if the resources provided by the President are insufficient, this is a matter not only for the President but also for our U.S. Congress. Presumably, if there is some problem with under-manning or under-equiping or under-supplying our units in the field, a whole lot of people should be involved; including the chain of command, inspectors general, and various ways for people in or around the military to communicate concerns to the American people and our elected officials. For a U.S. Senator to not be part of the solution for an alleged problem like this is pathetic.
Third, the only reason Barak Obama would repeat a story like this is because it confirms his ignorance, prejudice and hatred of the United States. The truth is our military achieved spectacular victories in both Afghanistan and Iraq, overthrowing two despotic regimes in lightning quick strikes, operating very, very far from our shores.
Subsequent to these victories, our military has supported the reconstruction of these two countries in the midst of armed insurgencies supported by safe havens, fresh recruits, money and weapons from the outside. This, we didn’t anticipate, and we were caught off-guard. But, after regrouping, our military responded to the challenge magnificently. I do believe our response will be studied in military academies for centuries, as exemplary of how to deal with such situations.
There is a lot of credit to go around, President Bush and General Petraus for sure, but also Senator McCain, and all our heroes in the army and the marines who are getting the job done.
Judging from what is now attributed by ABC to the unnamed Captain, one of the two critical claims made by Obama Hussein has been totally refuted by the anonymous Captain himself:
Obama Hussein claims that the platoon had such a shortage of weapons and ammo that they had to go after Taliban weapons and ammo to get more. ABC reports that this Captain refutes Obama Hussein on this point, and says that they did not need to seek out Taliban equipment, simply that they did sometimes makes some use of it when it came their way. The difference is night and day. Many former soldiers have reported firing AK47s on training ranges andd even using some in combat due to dusty conditions etc. — that’s a far cry from claiming that this mystery platoon was desperately under-equipped and trying to capture weapons and supplies from the Tal-EE-ban to make up for a glaring shortfall. Obama Hussein has misrepresented the facts on that key point.
The only other point of interest is whether the unnamed platoon really was 33% below normal strength when sent to Afghanistan, although I have seen a number of statements from former Army folks that actual platoon size can vary considerably. It would still be important to learn whether Obama Hussein had any of the story right, or whether he is just doing the usual leftist fear-and-smear attack on the CinC in time of war.
Stand by for ANOTHER “phony soldier” liar....
Obama certainly isn’t stupid enough to use a story that can EASILY be proven false if in fact it is false....Or - is he?
Interesting times ahead..
If he refuses to name the Captain, and the Captain doesn’t come forward - Obama is a liar, just like Kerry and McCain...
The people who care weren’t gonna vote for him. The people who are gonna vote for him don’t care.
Obama and his MSM marxist ilk continue the lies to sustain their persosna. Total BS from the islmofacist pond scum.
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0802/22/sitroom.02.html
Read Wolf Blitzer’s take on this. He admits it’s not as Obama tells it.