VP Kamala Harris faced backlash for claiming no U.S. troops are in active combat zones

VP Kamala Harris was slammed for her one of statements during the presidential debate with Donald Trump on Tuesday. In the debate, she claimed that US military soldiers are currently not deployed in any of the active combat zones. Her false claim contradicted the official reports of US troops being engaged in several active combat zones. In addition, a video of who seemed to be US military soldiers mocking Harris' statement surfaced on the internet.

During the presidential debate, Harris backed the Biden administration’s choice to pull troops out of Afghanistan noting the conflict was costly and long-lasting. However, it was her later comment that sparked controversy. She said there is “not one member of the U.S. military in active duty in a combat zone — in any war zone around the world."

In the video shared by Lori Mills on X, this statement is played on television to which one of the currently deployed US military soldiers responds with “Then, where the f**k are we right now?” Other soldiers laugh at the remark in the video surfacing the internet. The X user wrote alongside the video, “Deployed Military members react to Kamala Harris lying about deployments during the debate.” The location of those in the video in US military uniforms who seemed to be stationed in a warzone cantonment could not be confirmed.

This mockery of the VP’s statement was a result of its stark contradiction to the classifications of active war zones by the Department of Defence. The US military is currently engaged at war fronts in countries like Libya, Yemen, Syria, and Iraq, this year, as reported by Times Now.

Families of US soldiers killed in combat were outraged by Kamala Harris’s claim that no Americans are serving in war zones, which directly contradicts the official list of current combat zones kept by her administration. Furious father,Brad Illerbrunner, whose son Garett, a US military soldier got injured in Iraq said to the NY Post that Harris’ false claims in debate “really [hit] below the belt. . . . She doesn’t even recognize that our own troops are getting hurt. We’re still in war zones,” he added bluntly, adding Harris was “trying to snow the public.”

Michael DiMino, a fellow at the think tank Defence Priorities revealed to the media outlet, “The vice president’s claims on the debate stage offended wide swaths of the military community because they fail “a basic kind of smell test. If you’re in Jordan in the middle of nowhere to fight ISIS, and you’re getting attacked by Iranian drones and rockets on a daily basis, you’re in a war zone.”

He continued that Harris tried to “to finagle a wording . . . to make a point we’re not engaged in all these conflicts — which we are. Those quibbling qualifiers ignore the fact American men and women in uniform are getting shot at on a daily basis, and many just in the last eight months have died or been injured.”

Military analysts say Harris’s claim was not only false but also disrespectful to the sacrifices of American soldiers in active combat zones. While Harris aimed to highlight the administration's commitment to ending costly wars, her misrepresentation of military engagement has upset many, particularly the families of deployed soldiers who feel their sacrifices are undervalued.

(With Inputs From International News Agencies)