"A convoy of military experts have been invited onto cable TV shows to critique the calamitous end of the Afghanistan War, notwithstanding the central roles many of them played in the 20-year conflict, which was supposed to result in a democratic Afghan government that could withstand Taliban attacks," says The Washington Post's Jeremy Barr. The problem, says Barr and many other critics, is that these former military leaders "are eliding their own role in the failure of that mission and are unfairly criticizing the Biden administration for abiding by a withdrawal that was negotiated under Trump. Critics also argue that these viewpoints have taken airtime away from humanitarians, longtime opponents of the war and advocates who could speak to the human toll of the U.S. presence in Afghanistan." Former MSNBC anchor David Shuster, who led Fox News' coverage of the beginning of the Afghanistan War in 2001, says: “Cable channels tend to have short memories. They don’t remember some of the mistakes these people made along the way, and their audience certainly doesn’t remember. So, better to put on a recognizable face than someone who might not be associated with a bad policy or a mistake.” ALSO: Fox News is under fire for failing to disclose that retired four-star Gen. Jack Keane, a critic of Biden's withdrawal, profited directly from the Afghanistan War.
TOPICS: Afghanistan War, CNN, Fox News Channel, MSNBC, Cable News