Reality Vs. The Propaganda Of The Aug.26th Arlington National Cemetery Story

In the summer of 2021, the Biden/Harris administration committed many critical strategic errors which led to the worst foreign policy debacle in modern U.S. history. The administration announced the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan at the start of the Taliban spring/summer offensive and publicized a politically motivated withdrawal date of Sept 11, 2021, the 20^th Anniversary of the 9-11 attacks.

From flawed timing of the announcement and political withdrawal date to the decision to remove military forces before civilians were evacuated. From the terrorist prisoner releases that summer, to giving up Bagram Airport to the Taliban, to leaving tens of billions in American equipment for the Taliban, strategic malpractice could not have been worse. Though the whole ordeal was bad for America and Afghan allies, the worst day was August 26, 2021 when a suicide bomber infiltrated the mayhem at the perimeter of the Kabul airport. This year on August 26, the families of those who had fallen invited former President Donald Trump to lay a wreath in Arlington in honor of these American heroes.

They also invited Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to attend. Donald Trump accepted the invitation, while Joe Biden spent the day at the beach and Kamala Harris spent the day working on her campaign. Under normal circumstances, we would expect media coverage to critical of Biden and Harris, but that would be assuming a non-partisan mainstream media. What happened in coverage proves how far the media has moved to outright propaganda on behalf of the Harris campaign.

First, as this event was turned into a scandal against Trump for what happened at Arlington. I want to provide some perspective beyond having served in Afghanistan. Serving as an Infantry officer from 1990-2020, I have had to attend multiple funerals at Arlington while in military dress blues when friends were laid to rest.

In 2003, I attended the funeral of my good friend LTC Chad Buehring, a fellow Citadel graduate. Chad died in Iraq that year during a missile strike at a Bagdad hotel where Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz was staying. (Source) 

Wolfowitz was invited and attended Chad’s funeral service similar to Trump. Those of us attending were so honored and impressed Wolfowitz had taken that time to honor Chad. I remember Wolfowitz being asked to be in pictures with those at the burial site. It would have been a slap in the face to the family for Wolfowitz to decline. I’m not sure whether Wolfowitz publicized those pictures, but if he had it would have been nothing but an honor to the family.

When I read the media frenzy criticizing Trump I couldn’t believe it. I had seen the pictures of Biden at the beach and Harris working on her campaign that day. I saw the mother of a fallen hero, Christy Shamblin, tell CNN how Trump had honored her and the fallen by attending. She also mentioned how the families had invited Biden and Harris and were disappointed they chose not to attend (Source) I saw the now-public videos of the family members at Arlington and all praised Trump and slammed Biden and Harris. In those videos and unlike mainstream media reports, Gold Star parents claim they never saw an alleged Arlington staff member get involved in an altercation with Trump staff members over taking pictures there (Source) Whatever happened with an Arlington staff member, the alleged “incident” was not noticed beyond the Trump staffers who claim there was no physical altercation. They told the staffer they could take pictures. 

The Arlington staff member remains anonymous, and the Biden/Harris Department of the Army spokesperson did not confirm there being an altercation, but solely that their staffer was “professional”.

As a part of the media propaganda against Trump, liberal veterans were brought in to clutch pearls and slam Trump for accepting the invitation and taking pictures with them. This is despite the fact that, by recent polls, almost twice as many veterans support the GOP (and therefore Trump) as they do Democrats (and therefore Biden/Harris) (Source) Regardless, the media paints a bizarre picture of Trump hating the military and of most veterans allegedly hating Trump. With few exceptions, every veteran I know supports Trump over Harris and polling backs up that overall reality. Few actual veterans are slamming Trump for attending the event, and almost all veterans making the most noise to the media against Trump are known Democrat/progressive activists.

By a new study making the rounds among international press, the U.S. media positive coverage of Harris is at 84%, while the negative coverage of Trump is at a whopping 89% (Source) The propaganda of the August 26 event against Trump (while offering no criticism of Biden/Harris) fits what the study shows of all coverage by the mainstream media during this campaign.

It appears the mainstream media has decided their credibility must take a back seat during this election, even if it means it is gone forever. The unfair hyper-criticism of Trump over what all Americans agree was the Biden/Harris administration’s debacle: The botched withdrawal from Afghanistan (leaving 13 dead) takes the media malpractice to a new level. The hope is that the American people see through the ubiquitous propaganda. Then truly honor the Abbey Gate heroes and families.