Critics have supplied a fact-check on Vice President Kamala Harris’ declare that the U.S. has “not one member of the United States military who is on active duty” in a fight zone “for the first time this century,” indicating that the assertion is deceptive.
Harris made the declare in Tuesday’s debate with former President Trump. Whereas her phrasing left room for interpretation, it’s clear that there are U.S. troops in hurt’s method across the globe.
“As of today, there is not one member of the United States military who is on active duty in a combat zone in any war zone around the world, the first time this century,” Harris stated in the course of the Presidential Debate on ABC.
The Pentagon informed Fox Information Digital service that members are stationed in varied harmful places however famous that these deployments are made by the Government Department and never on account of wars declared by Congress.
“An aspect of military service includes serving in locations where hostile actions may occur,” a Protection Official stated. “Those locations are designated by executive order and/or the Secretary of Defense.”
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“However, it’s important to note that just because a service member is in one of these locations does not mean they are engaged in war,” the official added. “The U.S. is not currently engaged in a war and does not have troops fighting in active war zones anywhere in the world.”
Vice President Kamala Harris went viral together with her response to a query about how she would convey down costs, in an interview with Philadelphia’s 6 ABC anchor Brian Taff. (Screenshot/6 ABC Philadelphia)
Mark Montgomery, a retired rear admiral and senior director for the Heart on Cyber and Tech Innovation on the Basis for Protection of Democracy, informed Fox Information Digital that the U.S. has “quietly shut down designations of war zones over the past few years.”
“I would ask: Is anyone getting combat-related hazardous duty pay?” Montgomery added. “The answer is yes,” and famous Syria for instance.
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The Pentagon didn’t touch upon whether or not troops in international locations resembling Syria, Jordan or Iraq or on different bases across the Center East have acquired hazardous obligation pay over the previous 10 months as Iran has backed proxies together with the Houthis and Hezbollah.
A switch case is unloaded in the course of the dignified switch ceremony of the stays of three U.S. service members killed within the drone assault on the U.S. army outpost in Jordan, at Dover Air Pressure Base in Dover, Delaware, on February 2, 2024. (Roberto Schmidt/AFP by way of Getty Pictures)
Hazardous Obligation Pay is distributed at a month-to-month fee of $225 and is payable to a member who’s subjected to hostile fireplace, explosion of hostile mines or different hostile motion whereas performing obligation in a hostile fireplace space, uncovered to a hostile fireplace occasion or killed, injured or wounded by hostile fireplace or explosion, based on Army.com.
Army members serving in Lebanon have been eligible for hazardous obligation pay since 1983, whereas these in Syria have been eligible since 2003 and 2014 for land and air fight, respectively. Iraq has remained an eligible area since 1990.
Robert Greenway, fight veteran of the U.S. Particular Forces and former senior director for the Nationwide Safety Council (NSC) in the course of the Trump administration, famous that the U.S. has “continuously” deployed troops to fight zones for the reason that 1991 Gulf Warfare.
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“The assertion is especially egregious, as she is the current VP and should know that we recently conducted a raid in Syria killing a senior ISIS commander, several U.S. troops had to be medically evacuated after another raid against ISIS in Syria,” Greenway informed Fox Information Digital. “Several servicemembers were wounded in Iraq when Al Asad Airbase was attacked by Iranian sponsored terrorists less than a month ago, and our ships are under near-daily attack in the Red Sea.”
This image taken on January 4, 2024, reveals a view of the headquarters of Iraq’s Standard Mobilisation Forces (PMF) paramilitaries in Baghdad, which was focused on the identical day by a U.S. strike. (Ahmad al–Rubaye/AFP by way of Getty Pictures)
“A current VP unaware of our military operations in combat overseas is a dereliction of duty,” Greenway added.
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The U.S. has roughly 2,500 troops in Iraq alone, though Iraqi officers this week revealed that they’ve labored out a tentative plan for the U.S. to withdraw most of its troops by 2025 and go away a residual power, The Washington Submit reported.
“The first phase will begin this year and continue until 2025, while the second phase will conclude in 2026,” Iraqi Protection Minister Thabit al-Abbasi stated throughout an look on tv.
