Jake Tapper supposedly corroborates Obama’s tale of Afghanistan. But does he really?
Barak Hussein Obama said:
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.”
Tapper reports:
“The purpose of going after the Taliban was not to get their weapons,” he said, but on occasion they used Taliban weapons.
That, Mr. Tapper, is not supportive of Obama’s statement. It says something completely different.
Obama said:
“Ended up being sent to Afghanistan with 24 because 15 of those soldiers had been sent to Iraq.
Tapper reports:
When he took command, the platoon had 39 members, but—in ones and twos—15 members of the platoon were re-assigned to other units. He knows of 10 of those 15 for sure who went to Iraq, and he suspects the other five did as well.
That isn’t fact checking. Soldiers get transferred all the time. When the 10th was deployed to Afghanistan in 2004 it was split, and it was the 3/17th cavalry that was split off. But Tapper and Obama claim that he was a rifle platoon leader.
Prior to deployment the Captain—then a Lieutenant—took command of a rifle platoon at Fort Drum.
But Tapper also reports that the Captain was short Humvee.
“We should have had 4 up-armored humvees,” he said. “We were supposed to. But at most we had three operable humvees, and it was usually just two.”
And that they were short on parts for their Mk-19’s. Funny thing that…light infantry platoons don’t have armored Humvee, and they don’t have MK-19 grenade launchers. But Light Cavalry does. And the 10th dispatched 3-17th cavalry to Iraq in the summer of 2004.
Regular light infantry units were dispatched into the mountains to fight the Taliban. The other units conducted missions to train the Afghan Army or provide base security. Which is exactly what the ground component of one of the 10th’s Cavalry Squadrons would do.
So…was he really a Cav officer? If so, was he really pulling security duty? If so, wouldn’t it make sense to move troops to beef up the 3-17 which was going into a real firefight? Because that’s what commanders do, they prioritize men, equipment and beans and bullets to where they are needed most.
Fact check? All Tapper did was confirm that a real Army captain spoke to one of Obama’s staffers. Beyond that he hasn’t checked a thing.
UPDATE: Flopping Aces and Black Five are all over this as well.