Very long post – but one that is sorely need to – this outstanding
article from the Washington Post (September1)
with this headline:
“GOP douses Afghanistan
withdrawal with misinformation”
Even in the midst of the worst stretch of the Biden presidency thus far, the lure of misinformation: e.g., information or news placed by mistake or error, or possibly false or inaccurate information, especially that which is deliberately intended to deceive.
vs.
Disinformation: e.g., information or news purposely placed with the intent to deceive; be harmful; plant distrust; disrupt norms; and cause widespread chaos.
Both have proven irresistible to GOP critics.
Article four examples
below [edited to fit the blog-easy reading]:
1. Saying that President Biden skipped the ceremony for 13
Americans killed last week at Dover AFB, DE.
2. Saying in recent days that the Taliban hanged someone
from an American helicopter.
3. And some $80 billion in military equipment was left for
use by the Taliban.
4. The latest regards us leaving military dogs behind in
Afghanistan.
With the assistance of some high-profile conservatives and even congressional Republicans, these reports have proliferated on social media.
The process really kicked into gear
over the weekend when conservatives accused Biden of skipping the ceremony at
Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.
#1. Biden’s Absence from Dover AFB: The problem here is that when the allegation was lodged, the plane bearing the service members’ remains had yet to land. When the ceremony began the next day, Biden was there. But Fox’s Laura Ingraham, Trump’s former Acting DNI, Ric Grenell, and California GOP congressional candidate Buzz Patterson tweeted (posted by CNN reporters, Daniel Dale): “Our heroes were returned to American soil and Dover AFB today. Nobody from the Biden White House attended.”
Other GOPers promoted that same claim that Biden had been absent.
Note: They all
have since deleted their tweets.
#2: Person Hanging from American Helicopter: Recently, Republican
members of Congress promoted a video that supposedly showed the Taliban hanging
someone from an American helicopter, for everyone to see.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-RX) said:
“This horrifying image encapsulates Joe Biden’s Afghanistan catastrophe: The
Taliban hanging a man from an American Blackhawk helicopter” Cruz later deleted
the tweet, acknowledging it “may
be inaccurate.” The others remain up, though, and Trump Jr. has gone so far
as to make the false claim part of his Twitter background seen below.
Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) said: “Tragic. Unimaginable” as he promoted the same Cruz tweet alleging it was a hanging.
Rep. Jason Smith (R-MO), Fox News personalities Sean Hannity and Gregg Jarrett,
and Ric Grenell all cited the supposed hanging, as CNN’s Daniel Dale pointed out.
Yes it is unimaginable, Mr.
Crenshaw & others, because it didn’t happen.
As The Washington Post’s Glenn Kessler reported (their great fact checker), the claim began with a counterterrorism expert posting the video and saying he didn’t know what was going on.
A self-identified comedian soon promoted it as a supposed hanging by the Taliban, with many promoting it as if it were fact.
It
racked up more than 2 million views.
Trump
Jr’s image above was also posted by CNN’s Daniel Dale, also a very good reporter and fact
checker.
The BBC also fact-checked it, saying it was an attempt by a man who was very much alive to put a Taliban flag on a building.
#3: $80 billion of U.S. gear left in Afghanistan: Some
promoting that hanging video (including Cruz in his corrected tweet) also focused
more on U.S. military equipment like Black Hawk helicopters falling into the
hands of the Taliban — which is far from ideal.
Often that claim is that the withdrawal has left the Taliban
with more than $80 billion of U.S. military equipment. Republican members of
Congress have been all over this.
But Glenn Kessler again provided some crucial context writing that the actual dollar
amount is grossly inflated — since it includes the cost of training and
sustaining the Afghan military for the past two decades — and that even the
equipment left over in that total is largely unusable by the Taliban.
The latest report from the Special IG for Afghanistan
Reconstruction (SIGAR) shows that 167 aircraft out of an inventory of 211 were
usable, but the Afghan Air Force (AAF) still lacked enough qualified pilots to
fly them. One other reason is that the Taliban targeted pilots for
assassination.
The same IG report
said that even more problematic was that there were not enough maintenance
crews to maintain the aircraft, adding: “Without continued contractor
support, none of the AAF’s airframes can be sustained as combat effective for
more than a few months, depending on the stock of equipment parts in-country,
the maintenance capability on each airframe, and the timing of contractor
support withdrawal.”
However, with great fanfare, the Taliban did seize a number
of Black Hawk helicopters, including ones that the United States had just
shipped this year at the request of former Afghan president Ashraf Ghani – who
fled to the UAE.
The SIGAR also said the first crew of Black Hawk mechanics
had been trained, so the military “can field no more than one UH-60 per night for
helicopter missions.” But, even after Kessler’s fact checking, Republicans
proceeded wrongly placing the dollar amount north of $80 billion even at press conferences recently, too.
#4: We left military dogs behind: This claim cropped up with
perhaps understandable gusto over the past 24 hours and that is the idea that
the U.S. military abandoned its service dogs in Afghanistan.
The main sources behind the claim and photo of dogs in crates
at the Kabul airport and is a group called American Humane, which cited reports of dogs being left behind in a news release.
American Humane spokeswoman,
Laura Sheehan said told The Post: “The DOD statement is very carefully
worded. Contract dogs were not treated the same as military working dogs.”
The New York Post promoted that release while describing the group as the American Humane Society.
Note: That group is not the same as the more well-known Humane
Society of the United States.
DOD denies it left dogs in crates at the airport.
Pentagon
spokesman, John Kirby said: “To correct erroneous reports, the U.S.
Military did not leave any dogs in cages at Hamid Karzai International Airport,
including the reported military working dogs. Photos circulating online were
animals under the care of the Kabul Small Animal Rescue, not dogs under our
care.”
The crux of the matter appears to be whether the dogs were
actually U.S. military dogs or other dogs, including those belonging to Afghans
or those contracted for work there.
The Post’s Kim Bellware and Adela Suliman have much more on the situation.
And, of course flame thrower, Trump Jr. tweeted: “They even left
the military dogs behind.”
Military Working Dog
Team Support Association (MWDTSA) said
on Facebook: “This photo went viral yesterday and we want to clear up
some misinformation surrounding it. We are 100% certain that there are zero U.S.
military working dogs abandoned in Kabul. Zero. The U.S. military did not leave
a single MWD (Military Working Dog) behind.”
Note: This last one is something that is being probed, and many will dismiss the distinction between a U.S. military dog and a contract dog.
But even last week, before the current blowup, NPR detailed the difficulties in getting dogs owned by
local Afghans, embassy workers and defense contractors out of the country.
Many brought the dogs to Kabul Small Animal Rescue — the same group DOD cited above — because they couldn’t leave the country with them.
The Pentagon said it was told the group
had chartered a flight for them, “but that flight never showed up or contacted
us.”
And many of the claims about the alleged abandonment of dogs have clearly gone beyond the evidence — as have many of the claims promoted on the right amid the chaotic withdrawal.
Even as the GOP has been served up a cudgel to use against Biden, it has for
some reason spent its time exaggerating the situation.
Finally: We
should all be cautious about such things in the fog of war, but many simply
aren’t being nearly so careful — or are deliberately spreading misinformation.
And many of them are the same people who are asking you to trust them when it
comes to this extremely complicated situation.
My 2 Cents: I’ll end this simply saying – a great article by the
Washington Post underscoring for everyone to be cautious about the things they
hear or read about (and especially single source articles and outlets (like just Fox news, etc.).
To do otherwise is allow and help pass not only misinformation but more seriously disinformation and that my friends is a very big reason our country is so divided in in chaos and near the edge of losing everything we stand for today.
I don't think anyone wants
that, right? Well, maybe except the GOP disinformation spreaders and Trump sycophants – some of
those mentioned above and well-known others in GOP circles and many now serving in Congress. That is truly frightening.
Thanks for stopping by.
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