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