‘The Atlantic’ Journo Spreading Fake News About Trump’s Military Remarks Was Key Iraq War Media Propagandist
Shane Trejo
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The latest phony media controversy to malign President Donald Trump and impede his “America First” agenda is pertaining to comments he allegedly made to disparage military personnel in 2018.
The claim, published in The Atlantic, is that Trump called fallen soldiers “suckers” and “losers” when opting not to attend an American military cemetery in France. The article is based off of nothing but anonymous sources and has been rebutted on the record by many individuals who were on the trip with Trump.
The author of the article is long-time journalist Jeffrey Goldberg, a notorious war hawk who has a vested interest in keeping U.S. forces deployed overseas. He opposes President Trump’s non-interventionist foreign policy to bring the troops home and stop being the world policeman.
Goldberg was one of the chief propagandists who duped the American public into supporting the Iraq War. He was responsible for publishing the fake news that Iraq had connections with Al Qaeda.
He wrote an article in the New Yorker back in 2002 arguing that Iraq was the “great terror,” Saddam Hussein was guilty of genocide, and Iraq had “possible ties” to Al Qaeda.
“The allegations include charges that Ansar al-Islam has received funds directly from Al Qaeda; that the intelligence service of Saddam Hussein has joint control, with Al Qaeda operatives, over Ansar al-Islam; that Saddam Hussein hosted a senior leader of Al Qaeda in Baghdad in 1992; that a number of Al Qaeda members fleeing Afghanistan have been secretly brought into territory controlled by Ansar al-Islam; and that Iraqi intelligence agents smuggled conventional weapons, and possibly even chemical and biological weapons, into Afghanistan,” Goldberg wrote in his lengthy diatribe meant to convince the U.S. public to support an aggressive, unprovoked war with Iraq.
“There is some debate among arms-control experts about exactly when Saddam will have nuclear capabilities. But there is no disagreement that Iraq, if unchecked, will have them soon, and a nuclear-armed Iraq would alter forever the balance of power in the Middle East,” he continued, citing no sources to justify his claim that Saddam was on the verge of getting nukes.
“There is little doubt what Saddam might do with an atomic bomb or with his stocks of biological and chemical weapons,” Goldberg added.
After publishing his piece in the New Yorker, Goldberg made the media rounds to sell the public further on the necessity of the war effort.
“I think what has happened over the past year is that as the CIA has captured a good number of al-Qaeda operatives, high-ranking al-Qaeda operatives, and has debriefed them, interrogated them or have the Jordanians do those interrogations, they’ve developed some information about the links between al-Qaeda and Saddam,” Goldberg said during an NPR appearance.
“According to my sources, those emissaries succeeded and Iraqis did, in fact, help al-Qaeda in the teaching of the use of poison gas,” he added.
Former vice president Dick Cheney even used Goldberg’s propaganda to build the case for the war in Iraq:
“Meet the Press,” March 24, 2002:
TIM RUSSERT: There's an article in The New Yorker magazine by Jeffrey Goldberg which connects Iraq and Saddam Hussein with Al Qaeda. What can you tell me about it?
VICE PRES. CHENEY: I've read the article. It's a devastating article, I thought. https://t.co/FuWLBQA3Zj
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) September 4, 2020
Of course, virtually everything Goldberg said turned out to be false, and the Iraq war became the “worst single mistake” in the history of the country, according to President Trump.
“The worst single mistake ever made in the history of our country: going into the Middle East, by President Bush,” Trump said during a Hill.TV interview. “Obama may have gotten (U.S. soldiers) out wrong, but going in is,to me, the biggest single mistake made in the history of our country.”
“Because we spent $7 trillion in the Middle East. Now if you wanna fix a window some place they say, ‘oh gee, let’s not do it.’ Seven trillion, and millions of lives — you know, ‘cause I like to count both sides. Millions of lives,” the president explained.
“To me, it’s the worst single mistake made in the history of our country. Civil war you can understand. Civil war, civil war. That’s different. For us to have gone into the Middle East, and that was just, that was a bad day for this country, I will tell you,” he added.
Goldberg has received considerable flak from his industry colleagues for his role in fomenting the Iraq war. He addressed his critics facetiously in a 2010 article published by The Atlantic, titled, “Yes, Yes, I Know I Started the Iraq War.”
“I understand, of course, that Israel represents the greatest threat to world peace today; that the defeat of Saddam Hussein was a victory for Bushist fascism; and I realize that Saddam had no relationship at all with al Qaeda (despite the volumes of evidence that suggest the contrary — if you’re clicking through, I suggest Volumes Two through Four in particular). So I can’t understand the vehemence and the ad hominem attacks. Oh, I’m also looking forward to seeing Oliver Stone’s Hugo Chavez hagiography,” Goldberg wrote sarcastically.
More recently, Goldberg was pushing the Russian collusion narrative that also turned out to be completely bogus. The fact that he has not been drummed out of his privileged position as editor for The Atlantic after getting it wrong so often shows that the fake news media is indeed the enemy of the people.
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