Originally Posted by
Freak Out
Originally Posted by
swede
Do you have a transcript or a link to one of this speech?
I believe the remark came about during the debate in Texas. Obama had heard from a captain whose platoon had been split up so that only a small portion of a full strength platoon had gone into Afghanistan. The sense of the remark was that direct information from an American military officer with first-hand knowledge supported Obama's contention that the "better" war in Afghanistan was being poorly supported because arms and men were directly siphoned to the war in Iraq.
Initial reactions from those who know the military were that the story almost certainly had to be factually false. Captains, for one thing, don't lead platoons; lieutenants do. And fighting forces are never deliberately split up at the platoon level, ever, to go to different geographic areas. Weapons and ammunition have simply not been a problem in either theater that anyone has heard.
Here is a helpful link in which the actual captain--yes, he was once a lieutenant--did have some things happen so that some guys went to Afghanistan and other guys got reassigned roundaboutly and may have ended up in Iraq.
The sense I get is that Obama's organization was able to spin this inconsequential anecdote into a clearly negative impression of great consequence without stepping across the line and actually telling fibs. With this talent of taking a few grains of truth and building phantasmagoric smears Obama should take a break and make a few hundred million suing tobacco, pharmaceutical, and oil companies. He'd be able to outright buy the Presidency in ten years.
Here's the link to the Captain's tale:
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpu...he-fact-3.html
And for comparison remember to read this anecdotal account of service in Afghanistan:
http://www.blackfive.net/main/2008/0...etttt-fla.html
After reading both we will pick the source that confirms our beliefs and call it more credible than the other.
AND.. fwiw...
Why is it that whenever I hear Afghanistan I reflexively think Bananistan and am filled with an overwhelming urge to let you open someone else's safety deposit box?