As an Afghanistan war veteran, I’m writing in support of Senate Bill 667, which has a hearing this Thursday in the Oregon Senate Committee on Veterans, Emergency Management, Federal and World Affairs.
This bill, known as the Defend the Guard Act, would prohibit the deployment of the Oregon National Guard into combat overseas unless Congress has first voted to declare war; a requirement under Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution, but one the federal government has ignored for decades to the detriment of our servicemembers.
It was a man from Oregon, Wayne Morse, who was one of only two senators brave enough to vote against the Gulf of Tonkin resolution and U.S. entry into the Vietnam War. “Our government has no right to send American boys to their death in any battlefield in the absence of a declaration of war,” he said.
In 2009, a prototype of this bill was introduced in Oregon with exuberant support from the Democratic grassroots. It was even supported by then-freshman Senator Jeff Merkley.
Today the Defend the Guard Act has been sponsored by Sen. Diane Linthicum, a rock-ribbed conservative champion. Similar bills have been introduced in over 30 other states, a movement endorsed by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.
The American eagle flies straightest when it’s got a strong right and left wing. It’s my hope that both conservatives and progressives can unite behind the Constitution, and in passing S.B. 667, defend the integrity of their National Guard.
