Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Army Chief of Staff backs Obama on Afghanistan story

When Barack Obama recounted a story during the last debate about poorly-equipped soldiers in Afghanistan, right-wing bloggers reacted with disbelieving outrage.

Jake Tapper, of ABC News, investigated and spoke with an Army captain who backed the story up.

Now, no less than the Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army says he finds the story believable.

Gen. George Casey, the Army's chief of staff, said Tuesday he has no reason to doubt Barack Obama's recent account by an Army captain that a rifle platoon in Afghanistan didn't have enough soldiers or weapons.

But he questioned the assertion that the shortages prevented the troops from doing their job.

Testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Casey said the incident would have occurred in 2003 and 2004 following the Iraq invasion. He said he remembers it as a "difficult time" trying to rush armor and other equipment to the troops.

"I have no reason to doubt what it is the captain said," Casey said. "This was 2003 and 2004, almost four and a half years ago. We acknowledge and all worked together to correct the deficiencies that we saw in that period, not only in Afghanistan but in Iraq. It was a period that we worked our way through."

1 comments:

Unknown said...

Gen. Casey is a true gentleman that tells it as it is without pandering to the left or right.

I support the beloved General and I support the U.S military in all their endeavors.

Whatever proplem people have with that Rumsfield era, it ended with him kicked out of office in November 2006