US troops use captured weapons and ammo
...because they have to wait too long for replacement parts, etc.
How in the hell can US troops possibly be using enemy equipment or ammo if we’re spending $10 billion a month on defense?!
The right wingers are spitting flecks of foam over a story Barack Obama told at the debate the other night...about an Army captain and how we're short changing our troops in Afghanistan, shorting rifle platoons.
ABC's Jake Tapper tracked down the Army captain in question, and Obama's story appears to check out in full:
Of course, the Pentagon denies it.
Yet, everybody knows that this administration shorted Afghanistan from the beginning...thinking Afghanistan could be done on the cheap. And they've let Afghanistan go to hell...look how the Taliban and al Qaeda have surged twice as strong there as we diddled away in Iraq.
The same Afghanistan that enabled al Qaeda to launch the attack that killed 3,000 Americans.
I backed our going into Afghanistan, that's where the men who attacked us came from. But then Bush lied us into his stupid greedy oil war in Iraq...which undermined the real war in Afghanistan.
And who's surprised that the Bush/Cheney/McCain worshipers are trying to discredit Obama's story. A story which shows once again the failure of the GOP to handle the wars, not to mention national security matters.
Here's the original story from NBC News Feb. 22, 2008...
WASHINGTON - The Pentagon on Friday tried to cast doubt on an account of military equipment shortages mentioned by Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, whose campaign team stood by the story.
In a debate with rival Hillary Clinton on Thursday evening, Obama said he had heard from an Army captain who served in Afghanistan and whose unit did not have enough ammunition or vehicles.
Obama said it was easier for the troops to capture weapons from Taliban militants than it was "to get properly equipped by our current commander in chief," President Bush.
The captain told NBC News that he was talking about not having enough ammunition and no Humvees for training, but that his unit underwent a three-week crash course in Afghanistan before they saw combat.
...The captain, who spoke on background because he's still active duty, said that his unit temporarily had to replace their .50-caliber turret-mounted machine gun with a weapon seized from the Taliban because they couldn't get a needed part fast enough.
...Obama said the captain had served as the head of a rifle platoon, which should have had 39 members — but 15 had been sent to Iraq so the unit deployed to Afghanistan had only 24 soldiers.[..]"
Remember that brave soldier who confronted Rumsfeld a few years back? He asked Rummy why troops were forced to dig up scrap metal to protect their vehicles because the military did not have enough armor.
Rumsfeld said "you go to war with the Army you have, not the Army you might want..." I wanted to slug him. Here we're the richest nation on earth and we can't supply the best equipment for those kids?
And now we learn from Obama's captain that things haven't changed.
The warhawks. Bush/Cheney/McCain, will try to deny it, but there are more stories out there about how the war in Iraq has diverted scarce military resources -- troops, equipment -- from Afghanistan to Iraq. The cost for that diversion was paid, is still being paid, by America's sons and daughters. We owe our troops better.
At the rate this administration has destroyed the military, it will be a miracle if we have a standing army by the time we get rid of GWB.
A president who thought of war as one big John Wayne movie -- "Bring 'em on!"
