As both an officer in the United States Air Force and an elected state senator, I took an oath to uphold and protect the United States Constitution. In both roles, I have done what is necessary for the defense of my country, its people, and our laws.
That is why I have been a champion of the Defend the Guard Act, SB1121. This bill would prohibit the deployment of the Arizona National Guard into active combat operations overseas unless the U.S. Congress first votes to declare war.
Opponents of SB1121 want to have their cake and eat it too. They want the ability to deploy our National Guard anywhere in the world for any conceivable reason, unencumbered by the rule of law.
Our Founding Fathers were very clear on their intentions when they drafted our system of checks and balances in 1787. President George Washington said, “The Constitution vests the power of declaring war in Congress; therefore, no offensive expedition of importance can be undertaken until after they shall have deliberated upon the subject and authorized such a measure.”
Unfortunately, from immigration to foreign policy, the federal government is refusing to enforce the law. For decades, Washington DC has used and abused our National Guard to fight its wars without the popular consent of the American people.
Brigadier General John Conley’s conjecture is that the federal government would rather defund and eviscerate the Arizona National Guard, leave hundreds of miles of our national border even more defenseless and unmanned, and fire thousands of citizen soldiers out of malice, rather than trust Congress to do the duty they’ve been obligated with under Article I, Section 8.
That threat is wholly unsupported.
Congressman Paul Gosar has endorsed my bill, and has been clear that the possibility of defunding the Arizona National Guard is a nonstarter. He wrote in an op-ed last year:
“Some opponents contend that passage of this bill would potentially threaten the Arizona National Guard’s federal funding. This is incorrect. There is nothing in federal law that would eliminate federal funding if Arizona passes the Defend the Guard Act. Nor would Congress pass such legislation. The federal government needs a well prepared Guard … I pledge that under no circumstances will I allow the Biden administration to defund our state’s National Guard. I know the House of Representatives would not approve such dereliction and nonsense. And the House controls the purse strings.”
SB1121 does not prevent the Arizona National Guard from supporting our sister states in traditional domestic tasks like disaster relief, or being deployed abroad on training missions. It relates only to combat.
That has left its Democratic opponents punching at shadows and denigrating the character of our Guardsmen. During discussion of my bill on the floor, Sen. Juan Mendez, D-Tempe, said, “[E]ven more immediate is that once we lose all these expensive war toys, then we start losing all the potential soldiers because they aren’t going to want to come to work without any of these toys they signed up to play with.”
I reject Sen, Mendez’s assertion that people enlist in the National Guard to play with “toys,” and without something shiny in their hands they’ll lack the motivation to serve. They are capable and loyal men and women who deserve better treatment than having their lives put at risk in undeclared wars in exchange for federal cash that was taxed from them to begin with.
If it’s a war worth fighting in defense of the United States, there will be no difficulty in finding a majority of Congress to vote in favor, with the unified support of the American people, and the National Guard taking its rightful place as the backbone of the Armed Forces. But if it is a war without the approval of the people’s elected representatives, then it is an illegal conflict, a violation of the government’s compact with the states, and a war that Arizona’s National Guard should not fight.
Opponents characterize Congress voting to declare war as an absurdity, an impossible task. Why are they so terrified of having accountability to voters? The fact is, supporters of SB1121 are on the right side of our soldiers and the right side of the law, but we’re on the wrong side of the federal behemoth’s racket.
Last year, the Arizona Senate became the first legislative chamber in the country to pass the Defend the Guard Act, surpassing over 30 states with similar legislation introduced. This year it passed with each one of my Republican colleagues as a cosponsor.
We are not alone, but pioneers in a national movement. Tom Mannion, a New Hampshire state representative and Marine Corps veteran who served in Iraq, tells me, “New Hampshire’s voters and veterans made their voices heard, flooding my committee’s phones and email with support for Defend the Guard. Our public hearing was near unanimously in favor, with most of the testimony provided by veterans. Because of this support, we passed H.B. 229 in a bipartisan fashion out of the House earlier this year.”
I have witnessed the same overwhelming support for this legislation from my own constituents, and every Senate Republican will tell you the same. I am determined to see SB1121 become law, for our federal government to rein in its endless wars abroad, and for Arizona to become the first state to defend the integrity of our National Guard.
