Pentagon Questions Obama's Claim

Reuters reports:

The Pentagon on Friday cast doubt on an account of military equipment shortages mentioned by Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama during a debate with rival Hillary Clinton. During the face-to-face encounter on Thursday evening, Obama said he had heard from an Army captain whose unit had served in Afghanistan without enough ammunition or vehicles. Obama said it was easier for the troops to capture weapons from Taliban militants than it was “to get properly equipped by our current commander in chief,” President George W. Bush. “I find that account pretty hard to imagine,” Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman told reporters.

It is pretty hard to imagine, because that particular element of the story wasn’t supported by the captain in his interview with Tapper. And while Obama did leave the impression that U.S. forces were serving “without ammunition or vehicles,” that wasn’t true either. Now that the Pentagon has weighed in, it may be possible to get a fuller accounting of what exactly did happen. No doubt that Tapper felt the captain’s story was credible, but the Pentagon can verify the details, and it should do so. Did the Pentagon poach members of the unit for duty in Iraq? If so, when did their replacements arrive? And was the unit really using Toyota pickup trucks to ride into battle? Given the liberties Obama took in retelling the story, these are fair questions to ask.

Pentagon Questions Obama’s Claim

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