Gen. George Casey, the Army's chief of staff, said Tuesday he has no reason to doubt Barack Obama's recent account by an Army captain that a rifle platoon in Afghanistan didn't have enough soldiers or weapons.
But he questioned the assertion that the shortages prevented the troops from doing their job.
Testifying before the Senate Armed Services
Committee, Casey said the incident would have occurred in 2003 and 2004
following the Iraq invasion. He said he remembers it as a "difficult time" trying to rush armor and other equipment to the troops.
"I
have no reason to doubt what it is the captain said," Casey said. "This was 2003 and 2004, almost four and a half years ago. We acknowledge and all worked together to correct the deficiencies that we saw in that period, not only in Afghanistan but in Iraq. It was a period that we worked our way through."
