HuffPost UK

Trump Generating His Own Fog Of Disinformation About Iran War

While every military conflict brings difficulty in understanding what is really happening at the front lines, President Donald Trump’s war against Iran features its own unique fog of misinformation: the commander-in-chief himself. In the span of just a few hours Monday, Trump claimed the war he started unilaterally was almost over, that Iran was within two weeks of producing a nuclear weapon last summer, that it possessed American Tomahawk missiles and used one against its own schoolchildren, that he had to attack Iran because it was about to attack the United States, that other Gulf states had joined the fight against Iran and that, oh, by the way, his war was not actually almost over. Not a single factual assertion was supported by evidence, and a couple were demonstrably false. Doug Lute, a retired Army general and former U.S. ambassador to NATO, said Trump’s open lying about the Iran war continues to degrade America’s relationship with allies. “His lies and ignorance erode confidence in us all,” he said. “The president said that for the MAGA faithful who believe everything he says no matter how false or fraudulent,” said Ty Cobb, a lawyer in the White House counsel’s office in Trump’s first term. “Iran has no Tomahawks. The world knows that. He did it to try to hide the shameful fact he murdered 170 or more Iranian schoolgirls in his whimsical, uncoordinated and badly conceived-of war.” U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the Republican Members Issues Conference at Trump National Doral Miami on March 9 in Doral, Florida. House Republicans are in Florida for their annual retreat as the war in Iran continues and gas prices rise nationally. Yet in stark contrast to the years-long scandal generated by former President George W. Bush’s false insistence that Iraq possessed “weapons of mass destruction,” reaction to Trump’s casual lying about the war he started without any attempt to build public or congressional support has thus far faded within a day or two. “I think most nations gave Bush the benefit of the doubt. They took him at his word. And regretted it,” said Jim Townsend, a former staffer at the Pentagon and NATO and now an analyst with the Centre for a New American Security, a centre-left think tank. “With Trump, nations are keeping him at arm’s length now. They’re getting involved in Iran only to protect their people and interests so they’re not criticised at home. It’s not to support Trump or the war effort.” On Monday, Trump’s claim about the Tomahawk became the most egregious and easily disproven lie about the 10-day-old war. Among the first people to die in Trump’s attack were 175 civilians, most of them schoolgirls, when US forces somehow targeted an elementary school near a military base in southern Iran. Numerous analyses have shown the weapon was an American-made Tomahawk missile, which is possessed by only the US and a handful of allies. Trump nevertheless fabricated from whole cloth a claim that Iran had Tomahawks and it might have been one of theirs that hit the school. “Whether it’s Iran, who also has some Tomahawks ― they wish they had more ― but whether it’s Iran or somebody else, the fact that a Tomahawk, a Tomahawk is very generic,” he said. When a reporter pointed out that no one else in his administration was making that claim and asked why Trump would make it, Trump responded: “Because I just don’t know enough about it. I think it’s something that I was told is under investigation, but Tomahawks are ― are used by others, as you know. Numerous other nations have Tomahawks. They buy them from us.” The claim prompted disbelief from one member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. “Donald Trump has no effing idea of what he’s talking about,” said combat veteran and Arizona Democratic Senator Mark Kelly. “I saw that statement yesterday, and you know, my reaction is: We have a commander in chief that doesn’t understand some really basic stuff.” Trump White House officials, including press secretary Karoline Leavitt, did not respond to HuffPost queries about Trump’s lie. Nor did she answer the same question when asked at a press briefing Tuesday, asserting instead: “The president has a right to share his opinions with the American public.” She was then asked about another false Trump claim — that Trump attacked Iran because Iran was, within a matter of days, going to attack the US — and whether Trump was simply making up that assertion. Leavitt responded, falsely: “The president is not making anything up.” Trump’s fabrication about the Tomahawk came the same afternoon he first claimed to CBS News about an hour before the stock markets were to close that the war with Iran was “very complete, pretty much.” Yet after his comments stopped the latest slide in share prices, Trump less than two hours later completely reversed himself while speaking to House Republicans at his golf resort in Doral, Florida. “We go forward more determined than ever to achieve ultimate victory that will end this long-running danger, once and for all,” he said. Igor Bobic contributed reporting.