This Navy veteran (me) will never, ever, vote Kamala Harris. Here's why:
“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, for the first time this century.” — Vice President Kamala Harris in presidential debate.
There aren’t enough adjectives to fully describe the mind behind such an ignorant, stupefying, flabbergasting, untrue and fraudulent statement.
Spurious. Mendacious. Deceitful. Breathtaking. “Misinformation” doesn’t come close.
U.S. service men and women are not just in a “combat” zone, they are under direct attack. Harris spits on them. For her, they literally don’t exist.
American sailors aboard ships operating in the Red Sea have been attacked. Military personnel operating from bases in Iraq and Syria have been attacked.
If the corporate media is keeping count of the number of American deaths and casualties, I can’t find it. Scores? Hundreds?
She’s never had a missile fired at her. She’s never been targeted by enemy forces. If there are truly no war zones like she says, she could safely visit one of the destroyers or bases that are not in a “war zone.” She won’t because, I suppose, she’s “never been to Europe either.”
If she knows our military is under attack but denies it is so, she is a dangerous liar who will say anything, no matter how bogus, to get elected.
If she doesn’t know it, she is even more dangerous. Will ignorance be the hallmark of her administration?
I suppose whether she knows it or not isn’t material. She reads whatever her ideological idiots speech writers hand her.
I was on a Navy destroyer during the Vietnam War. My ship never was deployed in a combat zone, so I can only imagine what it’s like to be targeted. (Unlike Democrat vice presidential candidate Gov. Tim Walz, I’ve never pretended that I was in combat.)
If you want to know what it is like to be on a ship that was successfully attacked, read about the USS Cole (DDG 67) in which 17 of its crew were killed and 37 wounded by a suicide bomber. Think of the terror of being seriously wounded and unable to find a way out of a pitch black compartment
The Navy is there to support its time-honored role since the late 1700s as a guarantor of freedom of the seas. The means keeping open sea lanes now are under attack in the Red Sea by Houthis rebels. The world owes America a bundle for doing this.
Is it possible that Harris doesn’t understand any of that? Does she know what the Navy does? Does she know of the courage and ultimate sacrifice that sailors have made? Will she bother to read the daily intelligence reports about actual combat? The idea that she can be the commander-in-chief, in charge of more than two million people in the armed forces is more than laughable. Way more. It’s scary.
You might get the idea that I am angry. That what Harris said is unforgivable.
That would be right. Today’s Navy, as other branches of the military, is an all-volunteer force. Serving in the military involves quality of life and other sacrifices. Pay is typically less than what civilians get in the same job. You’ve got to serve at least 20 years before getting a pension, unlike in civilian jobs. Having to move every two years or so. Sailors often are deployed away from home for at least six months, a sacrifice shared with their families.
Much more than that. They have put their lives on the line. That Harris ignores or is ignorant of that is unspeakable.