Sometimes when you’re celebrating a victory you get a big reminder of why that victory matters.
As you should all know, last week the New Hampshire House of Representatives passed the Defend the Guard Act, which would keep their National Guard units out of overseas wars that haven’t been declared by Congress. I couldn’t ask for a better start to the legislative season.
And last Thursday, President Joe Biden unilaterally launched an attack on the Houthi government in Yemen.
For longtime readers of the Libertarian Institute, you’ll be aware that the United States has been meddling in Yemen since Saudi Arabia’s disastrous invasion back in 2015. For seven years (up until a truce signed in 2022) Washington DC gave diplomatic cover to the Saudi princes while arming and refueling their bombers as they targeted hospitals, school buses, funerals, water treatment plants, and supermarkets.
That’s in addition to the Saudi-U.S. blockade, which kept food, fuel, and medicine out of Yemen and starved hundreds of thousands of civilians to death, most of them children.
(And I’d be remiss not to mention the Saudi government’s tacit alliance with Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, giving them guns and empowering them against the Houthis.)
Now, in response to the widening war between Israel and Hamas, the Houthis have been attacking international shipping.
In coordination with the United Kingdom, Canada, the Netherlands, and Bahrain, Joe Biden ordered jet sorties and missile strikes on their capital of Sanaa and their primary port of Hodeidah. The Houthis have promised retaliation.
The usual suspects have announced their support for Biden’s new war.
Breaking News: Lindsey Graham supports another war in the Middle East. https://t.co/UDU80YB5WQ
— Matt Gaetz (@mattgaetz) January 12, 2024
Their argument is that as the global hegemon, the United States has an inherent responsibility to protect international shipping. In layman’s terms, that’s using our military to protect foreign ships with foreign crews carrying foreign goods to foreign ports. I don’t recall ever seeing that clause of the U.S. Constitution.
Do you believe Uncle Sam has a responsibility to protect international shipping? Then the American people’s elected representatives can vote for it.
Until that vote, kick rocks.
And I don’t want to hear any nonsense about this situation requiring an immediate military response that only the executive could fulfill. If Joe Biden had enough time to put together an international coalition, he had enough time to ask Congress for a declaration of war.
But that’s just how U.S. foreign policy works in 2024; we learn one day that some far away country is being bombed in our name for some reason we were never asked about.
I can’t think of a more prime example about why the Defend the Guard movement is the most important grassroots effort in America.
State legislatures can’t stop Joe Biden from starting unconstitutional wars, but they can deprive the president of the manpower to fight them (thus discouraging them in the first place).
The president of the United States lied.
Today Joe Biden violated his oath of office and committed an impeachable offense.
The American people demand accountability. https://t.co/3rk9C9ce20
— Bring Our Troops Home (@TroopsHomeUS) January 12, 2024
This year our bill will be put forward in over 30 states, and we could see a litany of wins like we just did in New Hampshire. This year could be make or break for the vestiges of the old American republic. And if you don’t try to revive it, you’ll be complicit in its death.
It’s time we as Americans show Joe Biden and the rest of the DC War Party that we are tired of endless war and will bring our troops home no matter what Raytheon and Boeing think.
