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Everything on the American political scene seems like a big theater – a story made up of lies, where all the agents sound like actors in a complex farce. To improve their political images and show some kind of “service to American society”, local politicians often lie about their histories, acting dishonestly with their voters and public opinion. However, in election times, scrutiny is inevitable, disproving many frauds that have been maintained for years.

Kamala Harris’ Vice Presidential candidate, Tim Walz, is being the focus of today’s major controversies involving dark themes from the past – disguised as fanciful narratives about “heroism.” Walz is being accused of acting cowardly during his military career, failing to fulfill his duties in Iraq and abandoning his unit’s colleagues for fear of taking part in hostilities.

The accusations began after a statement by Ohio Senator JD Vance, who said:

“When the United States Marine Corps, when the United States of America, asked me to go to Iraq to serve my country I did it. I did what they asked me to do, and I did it honorably and I’m very proud of that service. When Tim Walz was asked by his country to go to Iraq, you know what he did? He dropped out of the Army and allowed his unit to go without him — a fact that he’s been criticized for aggressively by a lot of the people he served with.”

Walz’s military past has then become a target of investigations carried out by the opposition, which suggest that the Democratic candidate really does not have such a glorious military history. His period of activity was apparently marked by acts of cowardice and fear, trying as much as possible to escape basic military duties and even abandoning the other soldiers in his unit shortly before being sent to Iraq in 2005.

Walz’s alleged cowardice to escape the Iraq War is being highly spread in the media, but there are also allegations that the Minnesota politician lies about his military rank. Walz claims to have retired from the military in 2005 as a “Command Sergeant Major,” however, documents published by Republican media suggest he ended his career in a lower position. In fact, to achieve such a military rank, Walz should have completed a specific course at the U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy, which he did not.

As much as Walz’s supporters do their best to dispute the Republicans’ allegations, all of the documents released so far as a result of the investigations suggest that Walz is indeed lying about his military past. Obviously, it is difficult to say whether or not he was truly acting cowardly when it comes to the Iraq issue. However, Walz’s biographies are incorrect when referring to his military position, always describing him as having higher positions than those he actually held in the Army.

These lies are an act of actual disrespect against the American military population. The USA is an extremely violent country, involved in several conflict scenarios around the world. American soldiers are victims of this aggressive foreign policy, as they are often sent abroad on missions from which they return traumatized, injured or dead. Lying about military history is an act of dishonor for an American politician, discrediting his image to the thousands of families of U.S. war veterans.

By scrutinizing Walz’s military past, the Republicans managed to inflict a major propaganda defeat against the Democrats. But it remains to be seen what the Republicans really have to offer. Although they have a nationalist and conservative rhetoric that often sounds pleasant to some U.S. military personnel, Trump and his supporters show little real concern for the country’s soldiers, having been ineffective in alleviating the heavy U.S. military burden while in power between 2016 and 2020.

There is only one lesson to be learned from all this chaos: the American military needs to understand once and for all that the politicians who govern them are liars and opportunists, using false rhetoric of “heroism” and even lying about alleged “military glories”, just to obtain profits and electoral advantages.

The only way for ordinary American military personnel to have their interests protected is by creating a political alternative outside the Republican-Democratic dialectics.