They lied to our family. Over and over and over again.

The military did. The Department of Defense, or as the murderer running the place now likes to call it – the Department of War. Which really if you think about it is a far more fitting title, given the amount of havoc the US has wrought around the world, and this administration in particular is waging against Venezuelans and even among us, the American people.

Had I not been a journalist. Had I not covered the story of a young boy murdered by his own step-father. Had I not studied those crime scene photos. Had I not read the child’s autopsy report and made the connection to the lies told to me as a child. Had I not then spent three years pursuing my father’s own autopsy report.

Three years because I kept getting denial after denial. For some reason, the military did not want me to see those records. You don’t suppose it was because they lied to our family all those decades prior, do you?

Covering up is what they do best. The DOD. Or Department of War, or perhaps Department of Cover-Ups would be a more fitting title.

They, of course, never apologized for lying. Never acknowledged at all that they had lied. Just finally sent me two separate “after-action reports”. The first one claiming Dad died as a result of incoming mortar. The second one claiming it was mortar from inside the camp. From the very horwitzer cannon that Dad,”Chief of Smoke”, oversaw.

Lies.

To protect the family. That was the rationalization they spouted, whenever anyone in the military tried to explain it to me.

What difference does it make? my own mother asked. It won’t change anything.

True, knowing the truth didn’t bring my dad back from the dead. Just as knowing who ordered the murder of those clinging to the side of a boat just bombed won’t bring any of those murdered back to life.

But what matters is knowing when elected leaders are lying to us. It matters because when the government is able to murder people indiscriminately, with no accountability, it puts each of us at risk.

If Hegseth and Trump can lie about murdering people,, what’s to stop them from murdering you or me, or one of children, or grands?

It matters when your government lies to you.

Perhaps it doesn’t matter to MAGA Republicans.

But it matters for national security and personal security.

The truth is Hegseth nor Trump can be trusted.

And no one supporting them can be either.

We teach our children to not lie. Should we expect any less from our elected leaders?

There has been absolutely no evidence provided that any of the 80 people Trump and Hegseth have murdered were in fact drug runners. We are told to take them at their word. We are supposed to trust them.

But take from someone who has been on the receiving end of the lies – these men cannot be trusted.

Demand the evidence. Demand the proof.

Oh, one more thing … It’s not a war crime when there’s no war. It’s just plain outright murder. No less evil than the butchering of a journalist named Jamal Khashoggi.

Karen Spears Zacharias is author of After the Flag has been Folded (HarperCollins).