US Afghanistan Withdrawal Becomes Ammo For Disinformation Attacks – By Jacqueline Feldscher (Defense One) / Sept 9 2021
Adversaries are trying to make Lithuania doubt America’s commitment to its NATO partner.
VILNIUS, Lithuania—The U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan has given NATO’s adversaries ammunition for disinformation attacks intended to sow doubt about America’s reliability as a security partner, officials here say.
As Americans and Afghans alike struggled to get to the airport and evacuate amid disorder and violence, hostile actors spread the idea that the United States would abandon Lithuania, a NATO ally, as it left Afghanistan, said Col. Gintaras Koryzna, head of the Lithuanian Armed Forces’ Strategic Communications Department.
Disinformers are also seeking to convince people that Lithuania could not manage its own withdrawal from Afghanistan and left allies behind—when in fact the country withdrew all of its citizens and the Afghans who worked for them and wanted to leave, Koryzna said.
Defense One was briefed by Koryzna on a trip to Lithuania that was organized and funded by the Atlantic Council.
