Crossposted at hikava
The VRWC wingnutia brigade has been all up in arms over the anecdote Obama told about an Army Captain with a poorly equipped and undermanned platoon. For those who are interested, here is the video.
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.
Wingnutia is going ballistic about this.
Here are some comments by wingnuts from the youtube video:
It's completely obvious to listen to him stamer and stutter that he is grasping at straws to remember these elaborate "facts". The person he expanded and lied about has contradicted this, AND it was 2003 that the guy was even in Afghanistan.
Notice how this is getting no coverage in the Main stream left leaning media? Their obamessiah is an obamaliar.
Everyone that isn't plagued by Bush Derangement Syndrome and everyone not on the far left will know what Obama really is by November.
McCain will win with over 300 electoral votes because you Democrats are so stupid as to nominate a new McGovern.
Keep it coming, lefties!
And from RedState:
This is just completely unbelievable! Obama is absolutely lying. Look at his face. He is absolutely lying! He made this whole thing up. I bet this mysterious "captain" doesn't even exist. If this turns out to be true I'm just going to shoot myself. That's how sure I am that this can't possibly be true. I mean, we all know that Obama couldn't possibly know anything about the military. Gosh, liberals just make me so mad sometimes.
::
I can understand this being unbelievable. Just how seeing the masses of people stranded in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina shocked the conscience, I could imagine that a story like this - that the greatest military in the world is being treated like this by their government, is shocking to the core.
But what I don't get is - why are these wingnuts railing against Obama if the story is true?
Jake Tapper (ABC) checked this story out:
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.
...
Prior to deployment the Captain -- then a Lieutenant -- took command of a rifle platoon at Fort Drum. When he took command, the platoon had 39 members, but -- in ones and twos -- 15 members of the platoon were re-assigned to other units. He knows of 10 of those 15 for sure who went to Iraq, and he suspects the other five did as well.
...
At Fort Drum, in training, "we didn't have access to heavy weapons or the ammunition for the weapons, or humvees to train before we deployed."
What ammunition?
40 mm automatic grenade launcher ammunition for the MK-19, and ammunition for the .50 caliber M-2 machine gun ("50 cal.")
...
"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.
Also in Afghanistan they had issues getting parts for their MK-19s and their 50-cals. Getting parts or ammunition for their standard rifles was not a problem.
"It was very difficult to get any parts in theater," he says, "because parts are prioritized to the theater where they were needed most -- so they were going to Iraq not Afghanistan."
So the story is true. Tapper did the research, and I've heard that both CNN and MSNBC have interviewed the Captain.
Also, John Warner has sent a letter to Barack Obama about the matter:
Consequently I, and I believe other members of the SASC, have a responsibility to establish where in the military chain of command rests the "accountability," depending of course, on the accuracy of the facts.
I am endeavoring to determine this now and have tasked the Chariman of the Joint Staff, through his J-3, and other entities in the Department of Defense to assist me. Moreover, it is my intent to raise this issue with Secretary Geren and General Casey when they testify before the Armed Services Committee next Tuesday.
Warner wants the facts of this from Obama, so, I don't know what to make of that. Shouldn't wingnutia be directing their temper at the people responsible for this predicament in the first place?