Quote:
Originally Posted by Bigfella
I think its pretty clear that General Casey is either the biggest liar or the most credulous dupe. Or perhaps he's just an idiot unfit for high command.
Right?
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Bigfella,
A closer reading of GEN Casey's remarks is in order, as there is no context to Obama's remarks and the broadbrush stroke of article linked by Astralis is weak.
Obama's beating a drum that is over a Presidential election old, and what GEN Casey states clearly shows that the case being made by Obama is an incorrect extrapolation. I'm sure the headlines are a reaction to GOP reaction over the remarks, so from that perpecitve it is a fair headline, but in terms of the specific issue, the headlines miss the story that Obama's conclusions based on this case is just flat wrong.
Quote:
General: Obama's Story Is Believable - Examiner.com
"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."
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Casey said the Army has purposefully not tried to seek out the captain individually. But he did contact the platoon's brigade commander, which belonged to the 10th Mountain Division, and reviewed the division's readiness reports.
Casey said the brigade was manned at 100 percent during its entire deployment, but that it is possible a particular platoon within the brigade was not manned at the desired level.
"There may have been some spot shortages in spare parts and ammunition," he said. "But the commander said that there were never a shortage of ammunition that impacted the units ability to accomplish its mission."
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From my experience, I have never heard of a rifle platoon split up for separate deployments. I have heard of units that deployed short of men because of the timing of folks ending their service, which makes them non-deployable (unless stop-lossed, which based on the time frame here, the stop-loss had been temporarily lifted), but that would also lead to the conclusion that Obama's case that Iraq hurt this unit's fight in Afghanistan as being incorrect. I've heard of specialty skills platoons being split up, but that's because they are designed to be split for actual operations.
Folks were correct to jump on Obama's remarks as they don't pass the initial smell test. GEN Casey's remarks could simply be a way to diffuse the situation and remove the military from the middle of a partisan fight, while preventing the officer in question from becoming a partisan target when it simply could have been a misunderstanding by Obama (e.g., maybe the platoon was short due to end of term non-deployables, but Obama misunderstood and made a misstatement).
I decline your false dichotomy
