Thread by @ggreenwald

Of course the images from Kabul in the wake of US withdraw are harrowing to any decent person.

The 20-year US war itself created massive amounts of suffering and death as well. But the images of that remained mostly hidden, and thus never produced the same reaction.

What this highlights is a crucial tactic of the Endless War machine in DC: selective display of horrors.

When the USG wants you to hate a country it wants to attack, they show you all their abuses. Meanwhile, they hide the similar/worse abuses of their allies (Saudi/Egypt).

Any decent person is going to be emotionally affected by images of desperate people clinging to a C-130 to get out of Afghanistan.

But consider how you'd feel about withdraw if forced to see all the people US air strikes killed and hear from their family members.

There is always immense suffering, tyranny and horrors in the world. Propaganda is all about selecting what to show you and what to hide in order to manipulate your decency into emotional reactions.

The US corporate media is key. They can generate pro-war sentiment with ease.

Apply the same principle from the COVID debate: you can't reach meaningful conclusions if you only consider one side of the ledger (costs of COVID) while ignoring the other side (costs of lockdowns, etc.).

Withdraw causes suffering for some but the war itself was horrific.

Both Trump and Biden did something very rare: defied the US military establishment and intelligence community and the corporate press -- which *always* wants more war for reasons Adam Smith explained -- to demand all troops be withdrawn. Both were right, despite these images.

War not only brings excitement to DC elites but also great profit and power: for arms manufacturers who fund both parties, for corporate media outlets, for Pentagon and CIA bureaucrats.

The US wasn't there to "help" Afghans. And the war most certainly didn't help Americans.

I know some are sincere that they favored withdraw but object to "how it was done." But precisely because the US Govt lied -- there was no Afghan Security Forces -- there was no good way to leave. And that's the pretext they use for Endless War: "not now," "not this way," etc.

One last point: virtually every neocon now beloved by liberals because they're anti-Trump didn't hate Trump for the reasons they gave but because they're warmongers and imperialists, angry at Trump's heterodoxies: Liz Cheney, Kinzinger, Kristol, Frum, etc

https://twitter.com/TPostMillennial/status/1427627034272927745

The reason people like Frum and Kristol and Liz Cheney and the rest of the MSNBC heroes of the GOP hated Trump was because he questioned NATO's value, wanted improved relations with Russia, advocated leaving Afghanistan, etc. That's the ideology with which liberals aligned.

Obviously, Trump wasn't a pacifist. He campaigned in 2016 vowing to *escalate* bombing in the name of anti-terror and did. He used MOAB in Afghanistan.

But he absolutely questioned and spread doubt on key DC orthodoxies about war, imperialism & CIA. *That's* why they hate him.