Abu Wabu

UPDATED---SCROLL DOWN

First: not a damned thing to do with bad policy by Bush- in fact, quite the opposite. Second, not a damned thing to do with the war in Iraq diverting resources. In fact, the problem was "trying to resupply an operation at the end of an 8,000 mile supply chain the last 1,000 miles of which is by tactical air and then by ground through the most austere and remote environment on the planet." A massive effort that dwarfs even the historic Berlin Airlift, and lasting far, far longer.

The truth behind the story is far less damning–if even damning at all. The captain (he is a captain now, but was a lieutenant when all this occurred back in 2003!) didn’t have half his platoon in one theatre while the rest was deployed somewhere else. Instead his unit, as a result of normal personnel rotations, had lost soldiers who had been transferred elsewhere and hadn’t yet been replaced. The Army’s individual replacement system, which makes such a gap in coverage possible, is in the midst of an overhaul toward a unit replacement system. Ironically, the long-overdue overhaul was in large part forced on the Army by former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld over the objections of many senior officers in the service who were wedded to the older system which had been in place for three generations.

(UPDATE: Four years ago I wrote an article for Military Review on this very subject. Unfortunately, the article is full of impenetrable army jargon, but the gist of it is a reform proposal much of which the Army actually implemented.)

We also now know that 1) U.S. soldiers were not forced to steal ammo and weapons from the Tally-Ban to replace their own (what a laugher) and 2) Barack! needs help with military matters. A lot of help. The first hint is that he may want to dispense with the old "good war, bad war" silliness. I Hope He will Bring Change to the tired old leftist idiocy of spreading Beauchampian soldiers-as-victims lies instead of debating policy.

UPDATED: Gateway Pundit has the most comprehensive review of this mess that I've seen so far. The most interesting development is that The One has been called out by mere mortal Senator John Warner, former Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Warner wants to hold a hearing on Obama's allegations and has invited The One to both grace the Committee with His knowledge on the matter and also to allow its members to bathe in His Glorious Light.

Michael Goldfarb is also on the case at the Weekly Standard.