Category Archives: Troops

Not that it matters, at least here in the San Francisco of Texas, which is pretty well set as Obama Country for the Texas Dem primary, judging by the bumper stickers and yard signs. But Barry’s claim at last night’s Dem/MSM dog-and-pony-show (laughingly called "a debate") that our troops in Afghanistan are so desperate that they must capture their weapons from the Taliban is wacko.

From the CNN transcript: "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."

First of all, captains lead companies, not platoons. And for various reasons that would be obvious to anyone with minimal knowledge of our NATO vs the Taliban’s Russian weaponry–which apparently does not include Barry–nothing they have would be useful to us and vice versa. Different rifles. Different rifle ammo. Different shells. &c. So now we see that the Dems’ prospective Pacifist-in-Chief is a bigger boob than anyone thought. Or else his wife (she of the finally-proud-to-be-an-American remark) isn’t the only one affected by self-righteousness and the blunders it breeds.

UPDATE: Heh. And Barry’s claim flew right over Hilarity’s head, as Wretchard points out. These Dems labor in amazing ignorance sometimes.

MORE:  ABC News’ Jake Tapper interviews the captain Obama quoted, though does not name him or feel the need to question or corroborate his details, and shows (though Tapper doesn’t say so) that Barry (to be charitable about it) garbled the officer’s message. For one thing, the captain didn’t say fifteen of his men went to Iraq, or that they lacked ammunition in Afghanistan, or raise the crucial Obama detail that they needed captured weapons–only that they had used some of them from time to time. Obama also didn’t mention that this information was five years old, occurring in 2003. So, while Tapper concludes that we bloggers have gone off half-cocked, I still think it’s a shoddy political performance, and close to an outright lie.