Obama on rifles

In a CNN Democratic primary debate in Austin, Texas, Barack Obama claimed that poor presidential leadership on President Bush's part was resulting in shortages of weapons for US troops, who had to use captured Taliban weapons to supply the shortfall.

"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," Obama told CNN moderator Campbell Brown.

"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 easier to get Taliban weapons than it was for them to get properly equipped by our current commander in chief," he added.

ABC News "confirmed" this claim.

General Casey, Army Chief of Staff, confirmed the story, while making the same mistake regarding rank, during testimony in front of the Senate Armed Forces Committee:

Casey said he had "no reason to doubt what it is the captain says."

Obama's statement contains more than one error.

The "captain" quoted was actually a lieutenant at the time of deployment. Captains lead companies, not platoons. Perhaps he used the man's current rank to make his story sound more credible. It would have been more accurate to say,

I heard about an army lieutenant whose platoon was deployed to Afghanistan with only 24 men, should have been 39. (That is true, accurate, and not misleading in the slightest)

The officer did not mention any shortage of rifles.