You just can’t make this stuff up.
Brian R. McCaffrey is a retired four-star general and MSNBC contributor, but on Monday the distinguished former military officer made a faux pas that he likely won’t live down anytime soon.
He posted a tweet that contained what he apparently thought was actual wartime footage from the Russo-Ukraine conflict, showing what appeared to be a Russian MiG being shot down by Ukrainian missile defenses.
Twitter users, however, were quick to inform him it was actually just a clip from a video game.
McCaffrey quickly deleted the tweet and seemed to pretend the whole thing never happened. But the beauty of the internet is that nothing can ever really be deleted, and plenty of Twitter users took a screenshot of McCaffrey’s post to ensure it will forever live in infamy.
Becket Adams, program director for the National Journalism Center, was one of many who retweeted McCaffrey’s post.
i, uh, have some concerns. of all people, you'd think a retired general with four combat tours and three purple hearts under his belt would have *some* idea regarding what this stuff really looks like. the video was clearly animated.
— Becket Adams (@BecketAdams) May 16, 2022
In the original tweet, McCaffrey wrote: “Russian aircraft getting nailed by UKR missile defense. Russians are losing large numbers of attack aircraft. UKR air defense becoming formidable.” Do tell, general.
In fact, the footage is reportedly from a video game called Arma 3, which is an “open-world” military game created in 2013. Even worse for McCaffrey, the game’s title can be clearly seen in the video’s description.
“I, uh, have some concerns,” Adams wrote in his retweet. “Of all people, you’d think a retired general with four combat tours and three purple hearts under his belt would have *some* idea regarding what this stuff really looks like. The video was clearly animated.”
This became even clearer in a post by Twitter user “Rising serpent,” where you can watch the footage. Although clearly very sophisticated (kudos to the game designers), the footage does have a noticeably animated look to it.
Barry McCaffrey, retired 4star general, Clinton appointee and Trump Russia collusion hoax peddler tweets Digital Combat Simulator (DCS) video game footage and tries to pass it off as video evidence of Ukrainian Air superiority over Russia. (Deletes tweet)
pic.twitter.com/5h2oLUY7hQ— Rising serpent 🇺🇸 (@rising_serpent) May 16, 2022
“Rising serpent” didn’t spare the poor general some withering criticism: “Barry McCaffrey, retired 4star general, Clinton appointee and Trump Russia collusion hoax peddler tweets Digital Combat Simulator (DCS) video game footage and tries to pass it off as video evidence of Ukrainian Air superiority over Russia. (Deletes tweet).”
Then the Twitter trolls piled on the general, and they showed him no quarter. Whatever his combat bona fides may have been, Gen. McCaffrey didn’t stand a chance.
That’s nothing. Last year, I saw him showing us military maneuvers on a Risk Board.
— Jay Lampert (@MortChristenson) May 16, 2022
He didn’t get to his position by using his brains.
— Steve Fisenne (@RubaDingyRapid) May 16, 2022
Probably because our generals have been a joke for awhile now
— Coolweaz (@coolweaz) May 17, 2022
Please cut @mccaffreyr3 some slack. The Gulf War was over in 36 hours, and they did not see a lot of action when he was at SOUTHCOM.
— James F.X. O’Gara (@jfxogara) May 17, 2022
McCaffrey has made frequent appearances on MSNBC of late, where he continues to promote U.S. entanglement in the Ukraine conflict. He’s also been a reliable critic of former President Donald Trump, predictably calling him “a fundamental threat to our democracy.”
Perhaps that’s why Max Boot, a fellow never-Trumper and dubious “foreign policy expert” was caught retweeting McCaffrey’s unintentionally humorous post.
And of course the self-styled military historian and so-called foreign policy “expert” @MaxBoot retweeted this fake video as well thinking it was actual combat footage. https://t.co/NlkcSkja4N pic.twitter.com/IshE2fiCVx
— Dan Caldwell 🇺🇸 (@dandcaldwell) May 16, 2022
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19 thoughts on “Retired general, MSNBC contributor shares ‘war footage’, that turned out to be from a video game”
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So I guess we are in another undeclared war that was never approved by Congress or the American people. Except that this won’t be a 20 war against an illiterate third world country but a nuclear armed superpower that could result in Armageddon. And for those Neo-cons who compare this to Chamberlin appeasing Hitler before WWII, I again say nonsense. Ukraine is NOT part of NATO and it is not our fight. If it were a NATO country then by all means necessary, stop him. Remember that Putin took Crimea in 2014 when Obama was President and nobody was calling for war then. Why not? Why now? Also remember that Obama refused to send Ukraine any military aid but instead sent them blankets. Again, Why?
I’m so tired of all the Politicians waving Ukrainian flags and shouting “We must stand for Democracy” and proclaiming Zelenskyy a populist “hero” when he is, in fact, just another dictator and corrupt politician. We can sympathize/support the Ukrainian people but will we start WWIII over it? Should we start WWIII over the genocide of the Uyghurs in China? We don’t seem to care about the systematic genocide of Christians in Iran, in Afghanistan, in Nigeria and other parts of Africa? And, oh yeah, Ukraine is the corrupt government that took a Billion dollar bribe from Joe Biden to fire the prosecutor that was looking into his son Hunter’s money laundering scheme. Not to mention that these Republicans are complicit in the constant money printing of this administration that is the primary cause of the massive inflation that’s bankrupting our country and our citizens.
100% agree
Folks, you just cannot make this stuff up.
That’s why we don’t win wars. We must fight end,ess wars because of morons like this. How embarrassing. Send him to Russia where he belongs.
That’s why they are called DumboCrats. This guy is a moron.
This dumb head makes morons look intelligent. Obviously no brains to make general in today’s USA.
Gen.McCaffrey not only proves to be a fraud by posting a vid from a computer game, he goes on writing sentences that in his mind are as matter of fact only to support his fraudulent war video. POS
This network is not honest and the general is a woke dingleberry
LMAO
My lord…. They get dumber every day
Give him a break, could be PTSD! US Army use video games as training aids for the army of one. Drones are very realistic video games that just blowup things, how cool is that? Can you get a purple heart for papercuts?
Fake news. Anyone surprised.
Too many of our top brass are lying traitors. No wonder that the Chinese believe that we have become a paper tiger!
that is how you qualify to get on msbc. it is for liars cheats and thieves. imo
But I bet he uses the correct pronouns.
This is a wonderful metaphor for the consummate fecklessness of the entire…ENTIRE…”progressive” movement. There is not one iota of intellect, not a microbe of decency, not a grain of reality that goes into their every single position and precept. It’s like a political and cultural heroine that they use to sustain their flight from reality.They walk among us.
Question: What do you get when your president O replaces real leaders with certified career paper pushers and a**kissers?
DUMBASS!!!!!
Sure, we’re in good hands over at MSNBC…
I better be careful, they might call the ” disinformation board ” on me.
What an F’n joke……