I’m writing on behalf of Senate Bill 667, which is scheduled for hearing in the Oregon Senate Committee on Veterans, Emergency Management, Federal, and World Affairs this Thursday. I am a veteran of the Afghanistan War.
According to Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution, the federal government has disregarded this requirement for decades, to the detriment of our service members. This bill, known as the Defend the Guard Act, would forbid the deployment of the Oregon National Guard into combat overseas unless Congress has first voted to declare war.
One of the two senators who dared to vote against the Gulf of Tonkin resolution and the United States’ entry into the Vietnam War was Wayne Morse, an Oregonian. “Without a declaration of war, our government has no right to send American boys to their deaths on any battlefield,” he stated.
A draft of this measure was submitted in Oregon in 2009, and the Democratic grassroots enthusiastically supported it. Even Senator Jeff Merkley, who was a freshman at the time, backed it.
Sen. Diane Linthicum, a staunch conservative, is the sponsor of the Defend the Guard Act today. Supported by National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, similar measures have been proposed in more than 30 other states.
Strong left and right wings help the American eagle fly straightest. I hope that both conservatives and progressives can support the Constitution and protect the integrity of their National Guard by passing S.B. 667.
Meridian, Idaho resident Dan McKnight
McKnight is the leader of the national veterans’ advocacy group Bring Our Troops Home.
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