I've rarely seen Wikipedia lie as overtly as this, usually it's more subtle and done by omission. They are straight up erasing history and making shit up. I remember for a fact these mercenary group was present in Syria and they were getting killed by Russian mercenaries, I saw a video of one getting sledgehammered in the knee. Now they are just pretending it's a radical clothing brand that travels to Syria and Ukraine.
Forward Observations Group, (nicknamed FOG), is a military lifestyle brand[1][2] founded by former U.S. Army infantryman Derrick Bales, that sells tactical gear and branded accessories and operates "popular military lifestyle social media channels" on Instagram[3] and YouTube.[4] The group has traveled to Ukraine, Iraq, and Syria to make connections with local fighters there and to shoot photo and video from the Russian invasion and Syrian civil war.
Military lifestyle "brand"? It's a mercenary company that you pay to do violence. It's thugs for hire. They go to warzones to "make connections with local fighters" like Azov and ISIS huh?
Literally nothing about Syria or Iraq, that section is completely omitted.
They mention in Ukraine sometimes they were seen with guns in backs of cars going to conflict areas in the Donbas. Weird huh, that a "lifestyle brand" would do that?
Then they say the Wagner sledgehammering FOG patch comes from an unrelated case of a treasonous Russian prisoner Yevgeny Nuzhin. They fail to mention what it actually is a reference to, Russians in Syria sledgehammering these FOG fucks to death because they fight alongside ISIS. I witnessed one such video, which I won't link here (don't even know where to find this) you will have to take my word for it. Good riddance scum. Owned so hard that they dissolved as a mercenary company and went underground to pretend they are a fucking clothing brand, scrubbing their entire portfolio from the internet.
Oh yeah and they're fighting on behalf of Israel doing genocide in Gaza too. Weird for a fucking CLOTHING BRAND.
This post sent me down a rabbit hole, good job Op.
This patch got me thinking about that time in 2018/19(?) or so when allegedly the US military in Syria absolutely destroyed a load of Russian mercs with air strikes, artillery and Apache helicopters. I remember this because I was still pretty lib and believed it, it was all over the media too.
Does anyone have anything to read about what actually happened? If there's something I've learned in the last few years it's not to believe a single thing these fuckers say
It's been a long time and I haven't looked into it since it happened, but from what I remember before the west got a hold of the story was that Syrian militias were chasing either ISIS or some other similar group and there were going to launch an offensive on their stronghold. The Syrians crossed some imaginary red line in the sand around their al tanf base so the US bombed a few of them. The rest turned around and returned to their bases. At the time there was no mention of Russians or even mercenaries. Russia in Syria was mainly their air force with soldiers protecting their bases. Russian troops didn't really fight except in a few instances.
I think the narrative took hold that America stomped the Russians was to saturated the news before people heard that America just killed a bunch of people to protect ISIS or al-qaeda
Syria was the proto-ukraine in terms of propaganda and I followed the war since 2012 or so. It was interesting watching al-qaeda split in HTS and ISIS with the Turks supporting both at one point as well as the Israelis. A lot of information from the war has been erased off the internet or at least the English speaking side