Last night in the debate, Obama went on about how the poor troops in Afghanistan are so unsupportedthey have to scrounge up weapons from the Taliban. This isn't all...
He also claimed that a captain, leader of a platoon, had told him 15 members of the platoon had gone to Iraq while the rest went to Afghanistan.
Here's the quote from the debate last night:
"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 is so wrong on so many levels it is insane. Does Obama have anything remotely resembling a clue about the US military?
First of all: a captain is not in charge of a platoon. That's a 2nd Lieutenant or a Sergeant in some cases.
A platoon is never broken up like that. A platoon consists of 3 rifle squads, a headquarter squad, and a heavy weapons squad--it's an organic whole. It would never be split and half sent to Iraq and the other half to Afghanistan.
And the U.S. Military is the best equipped in the world--do you honestly think they are sent out without a rifle? It beggars belief, plus don't you think that the Post or the NYT would have found that out by now?
Now, it's true that special forces (SEALS, etc) probably use Taliban style weapons just to blend in; and the occasional trooper may use a Taliban weapon--but it's not because he doesn't have a rifle available.
It's also true that a soldier can realistically carry about 200 rounds (with other gear), so it is possible to run out during a firefight that's heavy until a runner can bring some back from HQ. So I suppose that in isolated instances, you might pick up a taliban weapon that's lying there rather than wait for the runner to bring back more ammo--but that's certainly the exception, not the rule. Plus, everyone always wants more Humvees (of course, Obama wants to cut funding for the military anyway, doesn't he?), but that doesn't mean they don't have enough.
Obama better provide some proof of his accusations, because otherwise he looks completely clueless about the military--and he wants to be commander-in-chief? He'll be hammered by the right on this, and probably Hillary as well--and rightfully so. He's going to go up against McCain and not have even a clue about the US military? That is stupid.