A Republican Senate hopeful has compared Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, warning that the terrorist was also once considered a "hero."
Bitcoin millionaire Bruce Fenton, who joined the New Hampshire Republican primary four days ago, told WMUR that "there's so many parallels right now between Ukraine and the Taliban."
"Remember, as Zelensky is a hero now, Osama bin Laden was once considered a hero," he said.
He claimed that articles were talking about "leading his army on a road to peace" and that the James Bond film The Living Daylights was based on him. All of his claims are inaccurate.
It appears the article he is referencing was published by The Independent in 1993 under the headline "Anti-Sovier warrior puts his army on the road to peace," but the "road to peace" element was actually tongue in cheek. The content of the article highlights bin Laden's naked attempts to cover up his warmongering by cloaking it in a civic engineering project in Sudan.
The article notes that "outside Sudan, Mr bin Laden is not regarded with quite such high esteem." Further bin Laden himself is quoted as saying neither he nor his "brothers saw evidence of American help."
Mr Fenton was likely referring to Operation Cyclone, which was a covert CIA operation that funded Afghan mujahideen fighters against the Soviets between 1979 and 1992. While that operation did occur, it has never been proven that bin Laden - a Saudi - was supported in those efforts.
As for the James Bond film, the story pits Bond against the Soviets in Afghanistan, but the mujahideen fighters in the movie appear to be based on the real life mujahideen fighters that the US supported and not specifically bin Laden.
While the US does have a long and sordid history of supporting objectionable groups - the mujahideen, the war criminal Nicaraguan Contras, and Cuban exile terrorists aimed at ending the Cuban revolution - Mr Zelensky is not a rebel the US hopes to use to destabilise a region. He is an elected leader of a sovereign state facing an illegal invasion of his country.
Mr Fenton continued to compare the Reagan-era support of the mujahideen against the Soviets to the US supporting Ukraine against Russia, and said that the US should only deploy troops if “it is a true threat to the US Constitution”.
Joe Biden has stated on numerous occasions that the US will not deploy troops to fight Russia directly.
The self-ascribed libertarian made similar claims in a long Facebook post in 2015, claiming - again, incorrectly - that "our government once thought Osama bin Laden was a hero."
He also claimed he supported defunding the police, but wanted to do so by having "less laws." He also claimed the US government's response to the coronavirus pandemic should have been "nothing."
