Yes - I know - the BBC is a Tory rag. It's shit, for some of the reasons you mention. I'm not going to defend the MSM, but one still has to use the best sources available, which will differ for different topics. Thus all MSM options together can be useful as a group, depending on what they report. The BBC has a reporter in Afghanistan who has provided important videos of the circumstances. One can judge for themselves what they see in the videos. My point about the video of disabled helicopters (and there are comments from the Taliban that they are upset about none of the equipment in working order or heavily damaged) is that one can see the evidence. That said, Black Hawk helicopters were supposedly left behind, but I didn't see any of those. It would have been really stupid to leave Black Hawk helicopters in place. My other main point is that the recent priority has been to transport people, not equipment.