There wasn’t much that was very edifying in Tuesday night’s debate. It was all pretty bad. But, in my opinion, the worst moment of all was when Kamala Harris said the following:
Well, I will tell you, I agreed with President Biden’s decision to pull out of Afghanistan. Four presidents said they would, and Joe Biden did. And as a result, America’s taxpayers are not paying the $300 million a day we were paying for that endless war. And 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. [emphasis added]
What the hell is Harris talking about?
The charitable explanation for Harris’s debate-night rambling is that she does not know that Americans are fighting a shooting war today — right now, as they have been every single day since October 7, 2023 — in the Red Sea against the Iranian-backed Houthi militant group, an ongoing fight that has been widely noted to involve some of the most intense and sustained naval combat since the Second World War.
The charitable explanation is that Harris does not remember the three American soldiers who were killed in January near the Syrian border in Jordan in a missile strike launched by an Iranian-backed militia group. Forty other American servicemen were injured in that attack.
The charitable explanation is that Harris does not know that U.S. military personnel helped shoot down hundreds of Iranian missiles, rockets, and drones in a direct attack on Israel in April.
The charitable explanation is that no one has told Harris about the raid against ISIS fighters in Iraq — last week — that injured seven Americans.
Several hundred Americans are in Syria. More are in Iraq. These Americans regularly come under fire by Iranian-backed militants and conduct offensive operations against ISIS and other Islamist groups.
Of course, the alternative explanation is that Kamala Harris was trying to lie to the American people for political advantage.