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From Caitlin Johnstone Website
There's a news story about a US military convoy entering Syria being shared around social media with captions claiming that President Biden is already "invading" Syria which is getting tons of shares in both right-wing and left anti-imperialist circles. The virality of these shares has inspired clickbait titles like "Joe Biden Invades Syria with Convoy of US Troops and Choppers on First Full Day as President," which are being shared with equal virality.
But if you read the original report everyone jumped on, accurately titled "US military convoy enters northeast Syria: report," you don't have to read too far to get to this line: "Other local media report that such maneuvers are not unusual as the US often moves transfers equipment between Iraq and Syria."
So while this is a movement of troops between illegitimate military occupations which have no business existing in either country, it is nothing new and would have been happening regardless of which candidate had won the last US presidential election.
Getting back into wars on the first full day.
The Swamp/War Inc. is thrilled right now. https://t.co/rfKVVXEREh
Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) January 21, 2021
Another inaccurate narrative that's gone completely viral is the claim that Biden is sending more troops to Iraq. This one traces back to a single Twitter post by some Trumpy account with the handle "@amuse" who shared a Jerusalem Post article with the caption "BREAKING: President Biden is considering reversing Trump's drawdown in Iraq by adding thousands of troops to combat growing terror threats in the region as evidenced by Thursday's attack near the US embassy."
If you read the actual JPost article titled "Baghdad bombing could be the Biden admin's first challenge" you will see that it contains no such claim, and if you were to search a bit you would find @amuse claiming that they were sharing something they'd learned from "sources" in DC instead of accurately summarizing the contents of the article. Unless you know this person and know them to be consistently trustworthy, there is no valid reason to believe claims allegedly said by alleged anonymous sources to some openly partisan anonymous account on Twitter.
But the bogus tweet was amplified by many influential accounts, most notably by Donald Trump Jr with the caption "Getting back into wars on the first full day. The Swamp/War Inc. is thrilled right now." Its virality then caused it to work its way outward to dupe many well-meaning anti-imperialists (myself included until I looked into it) who are vigilant against Biden's notorious warmongering, and now there's a widespread narrative throughout every part of the ideological spectrum that Biden is escalating warmongering in both Syria and Iraq.
It is entirely possible -- probable even -- that reliable warmonger Joe Biden will end up sending more US troops to Iraq and Syria at some point during his administration. But if the antiwar community keeps staring at the movement of ground troops with hyper-vigilant intensity, they won't be paying enough attention to the areas where the more deadly aspects of Biden's hawkishness are likely to manifest.
Donald Trump is the first president in modern history did not start a new war.
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