Old photo of US soldiers in Iraq falsely linked to Texas border control dispute
- Published on February 28, 2024 at 08:38
- 3 min read
- By Roxana ROMERO, AFP USA, AFP Hong Kong
- Translation and adaptation Tommy WANG
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"Breaking! The Texas Army National Guard has removed the flag of the United States of America and temporarily raised the Texas state flag, while a new Republican flag proposal is in the works," reads a simplified Chinese X post from January 30, 2024.
"Will Texas secede from the United States and become an independent nation?" it asks.
The accompanying photo shows a group of soldiers posing with the Texas state flag.
The photo was shared in similar posts around the world, including from social media users in Canada, Morocco and Peru. It also circulated widely in Chinese-language posts on X, Facebook and Weibo.
The posts circulated as tensions escalated between the White House and Texas Republican governor Greg Abbott over the US-Mexico border.
A spike in illegal border crossings has made migration a key talking point in the US presidential election campaign, with Republicans seeking to pin blame for the record-high numbers entirely on Democratic President Joe Biden.
Abbott has amassed national guard troops from Texas and other Republican-led states in the flashpoint town of Eagle Pass to erect razor wire and other barriers to block migrants. He has also announced plans to construct a military base in the town.
Border control is a federal responsibility in the United States, but Abbott -- a supporter of former president and Republican frontrunner Donald Trump -- accuses the Biden administration of allowing an "invasion" of illegal migrants at the country's southern border.
The dispute has emboldened a pocket of people advocating to make Texas a separate country in a movement they call Texit.
However, the photo circulating on social media is unrelated to the border dispute.
US soldiers in Iraq
A reverse image search on Yandex found the photo in a blog post from May 31, 2016 by the Airborne Angel Cadets of Texas charity.
The photo caption says: "U.S. Soldiers proudly pose with Texas flag in Iraq!"
"The Airborne Angel Cadets of Texas recently sent a bunch of care packages to one of our great military contacts in Iraq," the blog post says.
"She distributed the donations to many troops in her area, and gathered some of the 'Texas' soldiers for the photo below. We sent the Texas flag with our care packages."
Below is a screenshot comparison of the photo shared in false posts (left) and in the Airborne Angel Cadets of Texas's blog post (right):
Nancy Carter, founder and president of Airborne Angel Cadets of Texas, told AFP the photo was sent to her by one of her units in Iraq (archived link).
"The soldiers from Texas [in the photo] are just holding it up for us and took a photo to show their pride in our state," she said in an email on January 30, 2024.
AFP has previously debunked misinformation about the dispute between the US federal government and the state of Texas here.
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