Support the Military?

I didn't listen to last nights debate between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton but it seems Obama related a story told to him by an army captain who served in Afghanistan. It was about the lack of sufficient training before going to Afghanistan with only 2/3's of a rifle platoon and the lack of equipment when they finally got to Afghanistan. These happen to be guys from our own Fort Drum, NY.



In any case, the wingers are having a field day saying how this must be all wrong. This just can't be correct say the wingers. Lefties just make this stuff up. Besides, rifle platoons are led by Lieutenants not captains. See the wingers are up on the make-up of army units. The fact that the story was told to Obama by an army captain just doesn't ring true. I guess Wingers don't understand that military people get promoted (the captain was a lieutenant at the time the story was happening).

Fortunately, Jake Tapper, of ABC news called and actually spoke with said army captain. The captain stands by his story related to Obama.

I called the Obama campaign this morning to chat about this story, and was put in touch with the Army captain in question.

He told me his story, which I found quite credible, though for obvious reasons he asked that I not mention his name or certain identifying information.

Short answer: He backs up Obama's story.

The longer answer is worth telling, though.

[click on the above link]

Phillip Carter of Intel Dump agrees with Obama.

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.

The wingers always seem to want to attack the soldier telling horror stories like the one above rather than actually supporting the military.