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Obama: Ill equipped US Soldiers resort to using Talbian equipment in Afganistan
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/02/21/debate.transcript/index.html ^

Posted on 02/22/2008 8:01:39 AM PST by HD1200

OBAMA: 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.

OBAMA: 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.

OBAMA: 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? And I think that on every critical issue that we’ve seen in foreign policy over the last several years — going into Iraq originally, I didn’t just oppose it for the sake of opposing it. I said this is going to distract us from Afghanistan; this is going to fan the flames of anti-American sentiment; it’s going to cost us billions of dollars and thousands of lives and overstretch our military. And I was right.

(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...


TOPICS: Your Opinion/Questions
KEYWORDS: afghanistan; demdebates; obama; oef; soldiers; talbian
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To: HD1200

Rush is on it now. Bo Snerdly just gave a great commentary asking Obama to prove it.


121 posted on 02/22/2008 9:20:12 AM PST by Walmartian
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To: Shade2

I would like to see some military personnel discount that crap.

“A large number of unnamed military sources said that the unnamed Captain used as a source by Obama was full of it and had no idea what he was talking about.”


122 posted on 02/22/2008 9:20:25 AM PST by rlmorel (Liberals: If the Truth would help them, they would use it.)
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To: rlmorel

Exactly. Liberals have learned to live, and prosper without those inconvenient facts. Like a 2 yr old who has never been disciplined.


123 posted on 02/22/2008 9:20:35 AM PST by Republic of Texas (Socialism Always Fails)
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To: Always Independent

Thats the point. He/she was using sarcasm and absurdity.


124 posted on 02/22/2008 9:20:42 AM PST by KC_Conspirator
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To: Republic of Texas

That is true for the most part. One thing many people don’t know is that the Soviets always had weapons - especially artillery - that was just slightly larger than American made of similar size. American artillery was like 105mm and Soviet was 107mm. They could use our shells and powder bags, but we couldn’t use theirs. The same principle was used on larger cannons.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/107_mm_gun_M1910/30


125 posted on 02/22/2008 9:20:48 AM PST by Arrowhead1952 ("It may take another Jimmy Carter to get another Ronald Reagan". Rush Limbaugh Jan. 14, 2008)
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To: HD1200

U.S. soldiers are chopping off heads now?


126 posted on 02/22/2008 9:22:44 AM PST by Sig Sauer P220
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To: Renegade
Good morning.
“AK’s are much more weather and sand worthty . I’m pretty sure the ammo is interchangable with ours ( 5.62 mm.?)A lot of guys scavenge the enemy’s AK’s because of this very reason .”

You just made two statements. The first has elements of truth but doesn’t prove that the AK is a superior weapon. The second statement, about caliber and the ability to interchange ammo is completely wrong.

Michael Frazier

127 posted on 02/22/2008 9:23:01 AM PST by brazzaville (No surrender, no retreat. Well, maybe retreat's ok)
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To: Walmartian
Story=FAKE!

Obama=FAKE!

128 posted on 02/22/2008 9:23:10 AM PST by jaz.357 (When you throw mud, you lose ground.)
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To: rlmorel

Having been a military member through the Carter administration, I often tell people that money and equipment was so scarce that we did not have enough foul weather gear or even adequately spec’d gear when we were up above the arctic circle in October/November one year.

We had to take the jacket off of someone coming down off the flight deck and use that when going up, and because the jackets were relatively light weight foul weather jackets, we had to stuff them full of cleaning rags to get more bulk in them. No joke.

As Ann Coulter is fond of saying, that is what you get when a Democrat is in the White House. Defeat, embarassment and retreat.


129 posted on 02/22/2008 9:25:56 AM PST by rlmorel (Liberals: If the Truth would help them, they would use it.)
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To: rlmorel
libs have such disdain for the military,

They also have utter disdain for the truth. Factual errors don't matter to them ... only ideological correctness.

130 posted on 02/22/2008 9:27:41 AM PST by ArrogantBustard (Western Civilization is Aborting, Buggering, and Contracepting itself out of existence.)
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To: Thunder90
AK-47’s shoot 7.62x39mm ammo, AK-74’s shoot 5.45x39mm ammo, and the M-16 series shoots 5.56x39mm NATO.

A few years back DoD (not sure if it was under the auspices of the Army or Marine Corp) had a program that was playing around with putting a 7.62 receiver and barrel into either an M-16 or M-4. Reason was that US infantrymen/riflemen can only carry so much ammo into combat without sacrificing other important things ... and up in the mountains of A-stan (where the troops needed to go into combat carrying as little weight as practicable) they were finding all sorts of dropped 7.62 ammo that they could have used if they had rifles equipped to handle it.

So Obama may have part of the story correct, but he doesn't have the whole story -or the context- so he's spinning it into politicized BS. The context isn't that the US can't supply its troops with enough ammo ... it's that the troops sometimes can't take all the ammo they need into combat.
131 posted on 02/22/2008 9:27:55 AM PST by tanknetter
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To: jaz.357; All

Folks, he had an unimpeachable source!

Capt. Jesse MacBath!


132 posted on 02/22/2008 9:28:42 AM PST by BrewingFrog (I brew, therefore I am!)
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To: rlmorel
Obama heard it from Sgt. Rock.
133 posted on 02/22/2008 9:30:46 AM PST by boop (Democracy is the theory that the people get the government they deserve, good and hard.)
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To: tanknetter

Obama demonstrates his ignorance on basic governance here. It is NOT the president who funds, it is CONGRESS, and Obama voted NO to fund our troops.

What is amazing is that Campbell Brown is equally ignorant given there was NO follow-up on his ludicrous comment.

Typical liberal media.


134 posted on 02/22/2008 9:32:06 AM PST by Laverne
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To: Renegade

NATO and Russian 7.62mm ammo is not interchangable. But in Afghan. I am sure the more durable AK is a desirable weapon


135 posted on 02/22/2008 9:35:12 AM PST by When do we get liberated? ((Ok, Im the official Pit Bull Defender/If you can't stand behind our troops, stand in front of them.)
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To: Renegade

Ammo no compatiblo


136 posted on 02/22/2008 9:36:28 AM PST by ImJustAnotherOkie
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from NRO/the corner

From someone who knows:

the Obama military anecdote was absolute rubbish on so many levels. First, on his understanding of the military: Captains don’t command platoons, Second, we don’t split platoons between Iraq and Afghanistan, not even companies, battalions, or brigades. Sometimes divisions but by then you’re talking about a 12-15,000 man organization so splits make sense. Done it since WWI at that level and even below. The idea that one of the lowest level organizations in the army (a 40 person platoon) is split between a war with 40,000 troops in it and another war with 120,000 is beyond silly. If Clinton knew better herself, she could have slammed him for knowing nothing about the military, but she’s not in much better shape there herself.

As for the substance, absolute crap. Lots of things happen in a complex theater like Afghanistan but I don’t know anybody who has heard anything even close to that story in 6.5 years military involvement there.


137 posted on 02/22/2008 9:40:10 AM PST by mystery-ak (gopachy.com)
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To: BrewingFrog

So b.Barak.Obama was just repeating a story that his staff told him that they heard from a phony solider?


138 posted on 02/22/2008 9:40:17 AM PST by TeleStraightShooter (The Right To Take Life is NOT a Constitutional "Liberty" protected by the 14th Amendment)
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To: Bringbackthedraft

It was a 5.45 mm round for the AK 74 and in not interchangeable with the M16.


139 posted on 02/22/2008 9:42:55 AM PST by Halo-JM
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To: r9etb
He’s full of sh_t! A butter bar or a 1st louie at best commands a platoon. Half the platoon is in Iraq and half in Afghanistan? What an a-hole!
140 posted on 02/22/2008 9:45:58 AM PST by HenpeckedCon (B. Hussein/Bernie Sanders-08)
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