Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Silly Obamians ...

Some people just don't get it, which isn't shocking. They take this quote from Army Chief of Staff Gen. Casey,
Casey said he had "no reason to doubt what it is the captain says."

"We acknowledged and we all worked together to correct the deficiencies with equipment that we saw during that period, not only Afghanistan but in Iraq," he said in response to the question posed by Republican Sen. Lindsay Graham, a longtime supporter of GOP presidential candidate Sen. John McCain.
...and somehow get this.
That could mean any or all of the following:

1. That the story as told to, and relayed by, Obama was substantially correct;
2. That Gen. Casey remembers that his oath was to support the Constitution, not the incumbent President, and doesn't want to meddle in partisan politics;
3. That the brass is tired of the Republican clown show;
4. That the brass thinks Obama is going to win and has decided not to jerk him around too much.
Do these people ever actually talk to real people in the military. Is that what they think our thought processes are?

Let me quote myself;
...sounds like standard issue equipment challenges I experienced during Gulf War I, DESERT FOX and the post 911 deployments. That wasn't Bush 41's, Clinton, or Bush 43's fault. That is fighting wars supplied by the lowest bidder.
And SSG McGee,
I've heard of people getting short d*cked by outgoing units but all that can be taken care of pretty quickly
...or Dweebo from BLACKFIVE,
Being an MP, I had to get a crash course in 18B. And I did. The part they don't tell you about before you get in country, is the Afghan Supply system. And that was a system based upon shortages.

The warlord system of supply is not quite worked out of the Afghan military. Their supply system is horribly bureaucratic and is not geared toward supplying the companies, but in demonstrating who has the power ("I have the stuff, therefore I have the power") They are still working that out, with our assistance. As a result, we did scrounge RPG-7 rounds, 82mm Mortar rounds, and rifle ammunition from any caches that we hit, knowing that we could wait for months to be re-supplied otherwise.

But I want to be clear to everyone on Senator Obama's points:

1. There were no shortages of anything "American" that I needed to fight the battle.
So, I guess all of us "think(s) Obama is going to win and has decided not to jerk him around too much." I think you just told us a lot more about the way you think than anything else.

Some have issues that Obama implied that he talked to the Cpt about this subject, which he did not. He also did not make it clear that he was talking about events of 4-5 years ago. He also implied that the US military has to scrounge the battlefield to fight the Taliban. The last bit is really the core of the problem. On that and the fact Obama did not talk to the Cpt about this and that the Cpt never claimed that they had to scrounge for weapons is the issue.
The way Obama used his mis-told story was clunky and a load of BS. I quote the Senator again,
I've heard from an Army captain .... 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.
...and the anon "Cpt",
The Captain has spoken to Sen. Obama, he says, but this anecdote was relayed to Obama through an Obama staffer.

"The purpose of going after the Taliban was not to get their weapons," he said, but on occasion they used Taliban weapons. Sometimes AK-47s, and they also mounted a Soviet-model DShK (or "Dishka") on one of their humvees instead of their 50 cal.
Someone who now has or may one day have a DD-214 and isn't trying to get a job on the Obama team please become these peoples friends. You might be able to find them at Pilates class or something.

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