During Tuesday night’s presidential debate, Vice President Kamala Harris falsely claimed that no US troops are currently deployed in combat zones as she traded barbs with former President Donald Trump about foreign policy issues.
“As of today, there is not one member of the United States military who is in active duty in a combat zone in any war zone around the world, the first time this century,” Harris said.
US troops are deployed in Iraq and Syria under the anti-ISIS coalition and actively participate in combat operations. Less than two weeks ago, seven US troops were wounded in a raid against a suspected ISIS hideout in Iraq.
US troops have also been injured in recent weeks by drone and rocket attacks on US bases in Iraq and Syria, which significantly ramped up last year in response to US support for Israel’s onslaught in Gaza. Back in January, three US Army Reserve soldiers from Georgia were killed by a drone attack on Tower 22, a secretive US base in Jordan on the Syrian border.
Harris made the false claim while discussing the US withdrawal from Afghanistan. She said that she agreed with President Biden’s decision to pull out but also criticized Trump for negotiating the deal that led to the withdrawal. “He bypassed the Afghan government. He negotiated directly with a terrorist organization called the Taliban,” she said.
Trump defended the deal, calling it a “very good agreement” and criticized the way the Biden administration carried out the withdrawal. “These people did the worst withdrawal and in my opinion the most embarrassing moment in the history of our country,” he said.
When the genocidal war in Gaza was brought up, Trump claimed Harris “hates” Israel and that the country wouldn’t exist if she were elected. “She hates Israel. If she’s president, I believe that Israel will not exist within two years from now. And I’ve been pretty good at predictions. And I hope I’m wrong about that one. She hates Israel. At the same time in her own way she hates the Arab population because the whole place is going to get blown up, Arabs, Jewish people, Israel. Israel will be gone,” Trump said.
Harris responded by declaring her strong support for Israel. “That’s absolutely not true. I have my entire career and life supported Israel and the Israeli people. He knows that. He’s trying to again divide and distract from the reality, which is it is very well known that Donald Trump is weak and wrong on national security and foreign policy,” Harris said.
Harris also said in the debate that she would always “give Israel the ability to defend itself,” meaning US weapons shipments will continue to flow if she becomes president.
Discussing the war in Ukraine, Trump said that he would try to end it before he is sworn in. “I want the war to stop. I want to save lives that are being uselessly — people being killed by the millions. It’s the millions. It’s so much worse than the numbers that you’re getting, which are fake numbers,” he said.
Trump repeatedly blamed the invasion of Ukraine on Biden being “weak” on Russia and said both the invasion and the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel wouldn’t have happened if he were still president. Harris accused Trump of being fond of “dictators” and took a very pro-NATO line.
“Understand why the European allies and our NATO allies are so thankful that you are no longer president and that we understand the importance of the greatest military alliance the world has ever known, which is NATO. And what we have done to preserve the ability of Zelenskyy and the Ukrainians to fight for their Independence,” Harris said.
Harris claimed that if Trump were still president, Russian President Vladimir Putin would be “sitting in Kyiv right now.”
