The US troops withdrawing Afghanistan are being turned into memes in Pakistan, with one contingent depicted as eating dinner at an Islamabad shelter. The meme has gone viral, though it stands little chance to make it to the meme collection of the US military at military.com or other similar websites.
Other forms of caricature have also emerged, taking a dig at the US military.
The last US soldier left Afghanistan in the dead of night on August 30. Major General Chris Donahue was the last to board an aircraft at Kabul airport. He was photographed with a night vision camera.
Pakistanis began to make memes of the US soldiers when some of the foreign troops were allegedly spotted and pictured at, what looks like the Islamabad airport. The images show the soldiers wearing military fatigues and preparing to board private vehicles outside the arrival area.
One of the images was tweeted by journalist Anas Mallick. Other Twitter users chose to dig deeper, publishing flight tracker website data to show that a US military C-17 Globemaster III landed at Chaklala airbase in Rawalpindi.
A US Military plane has landed at Islamabad Airport carrying US soldiers who will be accommodated in different hotels of Islamabad, per local media reports. #Afghanistan pic.twitter.com/mu7rp1P3eU
— Anas Mallick (@AnasMallick) August 29, 2021
Although the claims could not be corroborated, the government has now banned photography at airports across the country.
The memes
Soon after the first images of troops appear and the government ban was enforced, social media users started sharing memes of the US soldiers. One of the most popular memes shows a group of US troops at a dinner table as a sign on the wall behind them reads “panah-gah” in Urdu script. The word could be translated as “shelter”. Prime Minister Imran Khan inaugurated the panah gah in January this year.
The original image of the US soldiers at the dinner table was taken at the Bagram airbase last year as the troops bowed their heads on Thanksgiving Day. Without paying attention to the details one may be misled to think that the US soldiers are eating dinner at the panah gah.
Other people tweeted the image of the US troops at Islamabad with the caption “absolutely not” and questioned the government why it had allowed the US troops to enter the country, apparently, without visas and undergoing the usual immigration process. The phrase “absolutely not” echoes PM Imran Khan’s response to an Axios interviewer who had asked if Pakistan would allow the US to use its military bases.
Pakistanis also caricatured the US military for its vulnerability.
“Ironic that the Punjab police now have to protect the US soldier,” read another line being shared on WhatsApp groups and Facebook.
US military memes
Two of the most popular US military websites military.com and wearethemighty.com have shared several military memes – sources from various websites – over the years.
One of the most ironic memes shows infantry troops somewhere in Afghanistan as they call in artillery firepower and wait until it “destroys the enemy” before the infantry could “lead”.
The meme is ironic because it spells the cause of the US failure in Afghanistan.
Afghan journalist Bilal Sarway says that the US “prioritised bombs and drones over the use of ground troops,” a strategy that minimized its losses but that eroded the trust for the Americans.
from SAMAA https://ift.tt/3sZh2kS
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