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Obama's Comment On Taliban Weapons

David Botti

Over at the IntelDump last Friday, Phil Carter was urged by his readers to examine an anecdote Barack Obama gave in the Democratic presidential debate the day before. In the military community Obama's recollection of his conversation with an Army captain about the use of captured weapons prompted curiosity, skepticism, and disbelief. As Obama said:

I heard from a 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. 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.

What's got everyone talking is the idea that U.S. troops are so ill-equipped that they are actually using the enemy's weapons to turn around and fight the same enemy. My rifle company landed in Iraq in 2003 with hardly any M240G machine gun ammo. The rumor was additional ammo was graciously provided to the machine gunners by some Navy SEAL's. But that was when the war first started. How about now?

Carter provided a few follow-ups which sought to fact-check Obama's comments. Here's what he found out through a friend:

I talked this morning with two friends who led rifle platoons in Afghanistan. Both confirmed to me that they did, at times, use captured or found weapons or ammunition. One relayed the story of mounting a Soviet 12.7mm heavy machine gun (the equivalent of a U.S. .50 caliber machine gun) on his HMMWV because it was too difficult to get the spare parts needed to fix their G.I. (government issue) .50 cal. Another told me his platoon carried AKs anytime they patrolled with their Afghan counterparts, and that it was always much easier to get 7.62mm ammo for the AKs than to go through the U.S. bureaucracy for ammunition requisition.

Then there was ABC News National Correspondent Jake Tapper who went straight to the Obama campaign staff seeking an interview with the Army soldier Obama referenced. The story checks out; but Tapper saw fit to elaborate:

They also didn't have the humvees they were supposed to have both before deployment and once they were in Afghanistan, the Captain says.

"We should have had 4 up-armored humvees," he said. "We were supposed to. But at most we had three operable humvees, and it was usually just two."

So what did they do? "To get the rest of the platoon to the fight," he says, "we would use Toyota Hilux pickup trucks or unarmored flatbed humvees." Sometimes with sandbags, sometimes without.
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Carter also pointed out this post on the National Review Online which took issue with the idea that captains were commanding rifle platoons; a job normally reserved for lieutenants. At one point I had a captain commanding my rifle platoon; so, that takes care of that, fact-check. Particularly in the Marine Corps Reserves, where officers must complete a period of active duty service before switching to reserve duty, you find hardly any Lieutenants. The result is that higher ranks are sometimes taking up lower billeted job positions.

Finally, over the weekend, the Associated Press fact-checked Obama's story. The article also mentioned that Sen. John Warner, ranking Republican member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, is seeking information about the anonymous captain and his platoon. Warner is looking to speak about the situation at the next committee meeting.

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Posted By: nicepeoplerule (February 27, 2008 at 7:50 AM)

This story does seem to confirm what Obama said as factual. We all know that the President has lied to get his way and it does not make me not love America because I know the truth. Why when people tried to impeach Clinton for not telling the truth about his affair, those who wanted him impeached weren't any less American but if you mention Bush being a liar and you are a horrible un-patriotic person.

To the marine who asks what branch of the military did Obama serve...well what about the fact that Bush was in the military but didn't "serve?"

My brother was in the military and he served in Desert Storm..I support the military but I don't support wars that are fueled by lies. I don't support our young men fighting for unknown reasons. I don't believe in having our brother's, son's, father's, husband's, not knowing when they are coming home and the president on golf outings.

If someone is not in the military, it doesn't make them any less American than someone who fought in the war. How many rich politicians children are in the military? Why don't they want their children fighting in the wars? They are our leaders and majority of them won't let their children sign up to be in the military...what's up with that? Obama is no less patriotic than those who are already running our country.

Why is it that if you do nothing but sit on your hump or come from another country, you can get all the health care and assistance you need? Why is my brother a truck driver and he just lost his house because of gas prices and when he went to try and get health care and maybe some food assistance they basically laughed him out of the building because he works. Ha, you have a job no help for you. No help for those who work their butts off and really need temporary help. Lazy, yup here's help for you. Not from this country, yeah sure of course you get health insurance to get checked out anytime you want too. Ghetto or trailor trash baby mama, here you go girl go buy you some lobster. Drug abuser uuhhh here's some stamps to go sell for drugs.

Me and my husband own our own company and we have 5 children, can we get health care, heck no. If I was a little less motivated and just sat on my rear, I could collect welfare and do almost just as well as we do now. We pay out of the pocket for my kids insurance at a whopping $489.00 monthly. When times were tough we had to drop our insurance, we just couldn't afford it. Some of you may see $489.00 as not a lot of money but to us...it means a lot.

The country needs change and quickly and I don't care if that person was in the military, if they're black, purple, woman, or man. we need change!!

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