We have to be careful here about being too critical because we’ve been played by some tweets, too – on occasion. Of course, it seemed like the entire internet and Twitter had been fooled last time and we issued an immediate retraction, something that Ted Cruz and Dan Crenshaw…

Yesterday, a video of an American Blackhawk helicopter flying over Kabul went viral.

One could clearly see a man hanging on a rope attached to the helicopter. As often happens, the story got bigger and bigger, as we see through the tweets. Most media outlets believe that the tweet below was one of those that started the frenzy. “Hanging” someone. We’ll get below and watch how it took off from there:

https://twitter.com/Holbornlolz/status/1432371405727977472

It was immediately picked up and used for political purposes because that’s what happens in the United States these days:

If this is what it looks like… the Taliban hanging somebody from an American Blackhawk… I could vomit. Joe Biden is responsible.

https://t.co/muHLEi3UvK

— Liz Wheeler (@Liz_Wheeler) August 30, 2021

It is true that Joe Biden is responsible for getting all American troops, and most Afghans that wanted to immigrate (by assisting us while there) out of Afghanistan, something that – in 20 years – no other president could do. But Liz doesn’t seem quite as impressed. Ted Cruz then took the video and in a since-deleted tweet (that can be seen here) wrote:

 “This horrifying image encapsulates Joe Biden’s Afghanistan catastrophe: The Taliban hanging a man from an American Blackhawk helicopter.”……  “Tragic. Unimaginable.”

And Dan Crenshaw:

In what f***ing world was it a good idea to just hand over a country to these people. https://t.co/fyO2fnxmfz

— Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) August 30, 2021

We would frame it more as “In what world is it right to just sit your army down for over 20 years in a dangerous place, someone else’s country, to no avail?” But that’s just us.

The New York Post went with a bit more restrained description:  “Shocking video shows man hanging below Black Hawk flown by Taliban,” and only noting in the body of the story that “it is not immediately clear exactly how he is attached or if he is alive.”

All of this over a video where if anyone actually watched the video, it is obvious that the man is waving to people and attempting to unfurl a Taliban flag. And, alas:

Afghan pilot flying this is someone I have known over the years. He was trained in the US and UAE, he confirmed to me that he flew the Blackhawk helicopter. Taliban fighter seen here was trying to install Taliban flag from air but it didn’t work in the end. https://t.co/wnF8ep1zEl

— BILAL SARWARY (@bsarwary) August 31, 2021

So it wasn’t as if the Taliban just took a look at the operator’s manual in the glove box of the Blackhawk and flew that thing around. It is an American-trained pilot and – perhaps – someone who might be a moderating influence over the Taliban. There is hope, the Taliban cooperated with the U.S. government in an evacuation that – breaking news – went very efficiently in the last weeks, and the American servicemen lost were lost to ISIS, not the Taliban. Trump is the one who “surrendered” to ISIS by pulling out of Syria and Northern Iraq.

So Ted Cruz and Crenshaw made asses of themselves because they couldn’t help but try to make a political point, this – despite the fact, that the majority of American people vastly favor getting out of Afghanistan.

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