Illinois should follow New Hampshire’s lead

 Illinois should follow New Hampshire’s lead

No, not voting for a traitor to be the presidential nominee in the IL GOP Primary.

Something Illinois could be proud of: seeking to pass a bill that would require the governor to stop unconstitutional foreign combat deployments of the state’s National Guard troops.

Three weeks ago the NH House passed HB229, the Defend The Guard Act. The legislation would prohibit the governor from releasing any unit or member of the New Hampshire National Guard into “active duty combat” unless one of these specific constitutional requirements is met:

The United States Congress has passed an official declaration of war or has taken an official action pursuant to Article I, Section 8, Clause 15 of the United States Constitution to explicitly call forth the New Hampshire national guard and any member thereof for the enumerated purposes to 1.Expressly execute the laws of the union; 2. Repel an invasion; 3. Suppress an insurrection.

Why is this necessary? Since 2001, over 650,000 Guard troops have been deployed in undeclared wars. Guard and Reserve units made up about 45 percent of the total force sent to Iraq and Afghanistan, and received nearly a fifth of all casualties. Since none of these missions have been accompanied by a Constitutional declaration of war, an Illinois Defend the Guard Act would have prohibited those deployments of Illinois Guard members.

The US Congress has abrogated its duty to authorize military action conducted unilaterally by the Imperial Presidency. During state conventions ratifying the Constitution, proponents James Madison, Edmund Randolph and Thomas Jefferson repeatedly assured the people that the president would not have the power to drag the Guard’s predecessors, state militias, into endless, undeclared wars.

That ended 74 years ago when Harry Truman launched a major war against North Korea without a declaration of war. Since then state National Guard members have been repeatedly called up to serve in undeclared military conflicts.

Time for Illinois to join New Hampshire in proposing a Defend The Guard Act.

All r