Posted on 02/22/2008 8:01:39 AM PST by HD1200
OBAMA: 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.
OBAMA: 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.
OBAMA: Now, that’s a consequence of bad judgment. And you know, the question is, on the critical issues that we face right now, who’s going to show the judgment to lead? And I think that on every critical issue that we’ve seen in foreign policy over the last several years — going into Iraq originally, I didn’t just oppose it for the sake of opposing it. I said this is going to distract us from Afghanistan; this is going to fan the flames of anti-American sentiment; it’s going to cost us billions of dollars and thousands of lives and overstretch our military. And I was right.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
There is good reason why our soldiers might be purposely armed with AKs. The sound signature of the M16 and AKs are different and sometimes you want to fool the enemy. Special ops might do this, so might platoons going deep. It confuses the enemy, they think it’s friendlies, not our guys who are trained in operating as a team, regardless the weapons.
Many times our guys have gone embed status with other friendly troops, would only make sense to use the weapon type and ammo from their supply chain, unless of course they need a B-52 to help out.
Plenty of times on TV over the years Special Ops guys would have AKs ... you could easily tell if you knew what to look for — Which liberals don’t, so the lies work with them. Our soldiers are weapons trained with AKs for emergencies and for missions.
Obama is just a typical Democrat liar trying to act like he knows something. Democrats do this all the time.
AK’s fire a 7.62 round and the M-16A2’s fire a 5.56 round. completely different.
I’ve got a couple AK’s from Somalia...
Never Used and Only Dropped Once. ;]
Semper Fidelis
The only circumstance where a Captain would command so few soldiers would be in a Special Forces team, of which we have a lot in Afghanistan, so maybe that’s what Obama was talking about. SF is also more likely to be comfortable using local arms
Unnamed Sources tell us Obama confused US for an NVA platoon. Sources close to the campaign worry he may of relapsed back into his teenage year's drug use!
Be fun to pay the left back in their own coin would it not?
Thanks for suggesting a new Obamism - Obamacrapola!
A more appropriate questions would be does Obama even know what a captain is?
I don’t know how accurate this Wikipedia entry is but it says:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platoon_leader
“Some special units, such as specific aviation platoons and special forces, require a captain as platoon leader, due to the nature and increased responsibility of such assignments.”
Also, this Captain who was awarded the silver star is described as a platoon leader:
http://www.defendamerica.mil/articles/aug2007/a080107tj2.html
“U.S. Army Capt. Brennan Goltry, 27, 2nd Platoon leader, Company C, 2nd Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, joins a coveted list of Silver Star recipients, including Senator John McCain and Audie Murphy.”
No, a platoon is generally led by a lieutenant. However, I think what he was trying to say was that the captain *had been* a platoon leader, not was currently leading said platoon.
Platoons being understrength for any number of reasons is pretty typical. When I was a platoon leader, I was supposed to have a 30 man platoon (18 dismounts and 12 Bradley crewmembers including me and the platoon sergeant), I only had 18 soldiers - 12 crewmen and 6 dismounts. It's the way things are sometimes.
The Russians produced a 5.?? round for their AK 74. I guess you can call it the M 16’ski.
I don't believe we would split up a platoon into different zones.
In his statement Obama defines the Capt as commanding a Rifle Platoon, not an SOF team. He also claims they were using the captured weapons because they had to. SOF uses them cause it helps them blend in to the local scenery not because they have too.
Obama ... it’s YOUR job as a Senator that our military are funded and equiped. What legislation have you submitted?
Didn’t Obama vote against funding the troops? Genuine question, not sarcasm.
Guys do get promoted, you know.
The awards were made to their current rank which is Capt. The awards were made for actions they took while platoon leaders. It is misleading the way it is written.
back in my day (the 50’s):
Captains led rifle companies,
lieutenants led platoons,
sergeants led squads
maybe a special mission commando platoon or squad could have a captain.
We wouldn't.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.