Barack Obama Lied On the Problems of the American Rifle Platoon in Afghanistan
In the last presidential debate in Austin, Texas, Barack Obama said an American rifle platoon was supposed to have 39 soldiers. But that was an erroneous statement, because a platoon does not have to consist of 39, but can have between 30 and 50 soldiers. A lieutenant commands a platoon and not a captain as Barack Obama claimed. Barack Obama said the rifle platoon in Afghanistan did not have enough soldiers or weapons and had to resort to using the weapons captured from the Taliban. That was also a lie, because there were no shortages of soldiers or weapons in this case. "You know, I've heard from an Army captain who was the head of a rifle platoon — supposed to have 39 men in a rifle platoon ended up being sent to Afghanistan with 24 because 15 of those soldiers had been sent to Iraq," Barack Obama said. "And as a consequence, they didn't have enough ammunition, they didn't have enough Humvees. They were actually capturing Taliban weapons, because it was...