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.
Has McCain responded to this yet?
Hmmmm..... Question for the Army types out there: is it usual for a platoon to be commanded by a captain?
A rifle platoon?
Um the CIC can’t buy guns for our soldiers when the Democrat led congress goes on vacation instead of signing a funding bill without unrelated pork.
What a dumbass liar he is.
I thought a platoon was led by a lieutenant.
Name names. Who’s this phantom Captain? Probably more phantom soldiers.
Was he accusing them of plagiarizing the Taliban equipment?
A Platoon, when I left the infantry, was 4 squads, 11 men each, Platoon Sgt and a 2nd Lt. Captains were Company Comanders. Obama was never in the service so what does he know. I figure that he spoke to Capt. Un-named Source.
AK’s are much more weather and sand worthty . I’m pretty sure the ammo is interchangable with ours ( 5.62 mm.?)A lot of guys scavenge the enemy’s AK’s because of this very reason .
I call BS immediately.
If the scumbag did not make this up out of whole cloth, he probably got his “insight” from one of those fake soldiers who walks around wearing a fatigue jacket with a peace sign on it.
In certain circumstances a Captain will lead a ‘platoon’.
Those are limited and specific.
In Aviation, it is not uncommon for a Captain to lead a platoon. However, that is so not a ‘Rifle’ platoon.
Where did he get this info from...a Taliban member? Gee, can you imagine that? Our troops are capturing the enemies' weapons? Isn't that what they're supposed to do in a war zone? How, if they are short of ammo and humvees to conduct their activities, were they able to capture all these weapons and ammo from the enemy? It doesn't make sense.
To start with, Army Captains do not command Platoons, Lieutenants do. No platoon is ever going to be split up among multi-able fronts.
If they don’t have adequate supplies and equipment, how are the capturing the Taliban’s equipment?
Looks like Obama Campaign has been taken in by another one of the Anti American movement’s phony soldiers.
Raises seriously disturbing questions about the Democrats. This guy is a US Senator for crying out loud and his staff cannot do a better job of vetting his sources then this?
He probably would have said the same thing to FDR in 1941...
"... going into Europe originally, I didn’t just oppose it for the sake of opposing it. I said this is going to distract us from Japan; 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."
He'd have been in Alcatraz...
What crap! To thnk that this charming dufus might actually be our next CinC!
I just talked to the same captain and he told me Oprabama is lying. ;-)
I can tell you from experiene this is straight BULLSH*T But unless McCain decides to call him on it.. the media sure as hell won’t.. BTW, After yesterdays nyt’s Hit job, I am behind John McCain all the way.Period
Thanks for posting the transcript.
Obama = moron, it is as polite as I can be this AM.
Hey Obama, did you vote in support of the funding bill?