Defend The Guard

Yesterday @RepThomasMassie officially endorsed the #DefendTheGuard Act. This bill would prohibit the deployment of a state’s National Guard units into active combat without a declaration of war by Congress, as required by Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution. Rep. Massie is the third sitting member of Congress to endorse this legislation, following @RandPaul and @RepGosar. Our team of veterans at #BringOurTroopsHome has successfully organized the introduction of Defend the Guard bills in 24 states—in March, our bill passed the Arizona Senate with unanimous Republican support. Special thanks to @TRHLofficial who hosted the Twitter space where this audio was clipped from, and to  @MLiamMcCollum for asking the question. Read Rep. Massie’s full statement and listen to the audio below: “I have heard of it, and I love it. I've heard from some states, I actually had a legislator, a state senator, call me. One of the problems he said they have with passing this legislation is they get it to the floor [and] that some general will come in and testify and lobby in his uniform and intimidate the legislators. And then they'll say, 'Oh your Guard won't get as much money in your state if you do that. And we'll shut down this military contractor here,' and they go around, and not everybody falls for it, but a lot of them do. In fact, my Chief of Staff, Matt Gurtler, was a former Georgia state legislator. And he says they did that to them in Georgia. They tried to do it to him; I'm sure he didn't go for the pressure campaign. So, the question this state senator had for me is there any way I can help? And there may be some way, where we can bring this up in a hearing or something, or send a letter to [the] military, kind of brush them back from this pressure campaign where they threaten—maybe not explicitly but implicitly—and then scare all the state legislators against voting for it. But I love the legislation.” We must not allow generals to bully or intimidate the people’s representatives from following the law! We will end our unconstitutional endless wars. Thank you for your support Thomas Massie! 🇺🇸

“So far, National Guard units from 18 states have participated in the Iran War, continuing to act as the backbone of the U.S. Armed Forces.” This is why I believe Defend the Guard to be the most important anti-war action in the US. If we can prevent the US military’s use of the National Guard for illegal, immoral and counterproductive purposes overseas we can hobble the US Empire. The National Guard belongs to the states and their communities, not to the men and women in Washington, DC who want to use the Guard as pawns on their imperial chess board. Defend the Guard should be supported by Democrats, Republicans, Independents and third parties. If you want to stop US wars, then pass Defend the Guard in your state. Follow and support @TroopsHomeUS.

🚨EXCLUSIVE🚨 @joekent16jan19, former Director of the National Counterterrorism Center who resigned in principled opposition to the Iran War, spoke with our Chairman @DanMcKnight30 at the @RonPaulInstitut. Kent was an early endorser of @DefendTheGuard in 2022. "When I saw the casualties starting to come in, that for me was like, this is going to keep going and I can't be a part of this. I need to speak out to hopefully prevent more casualties from continuing to come in and to stop the bleeding," Kent explained. "The level of Israeli influence within our government, it's something I didn't understand until I was actually in it. And that's something major that we have to get out of our political system." Kent's proposal is that the Trump administration take a page from Ronald Reagan, and use his precedent from Lebanon in 1984 to withdraw our troops from the Middle East—removing Iranian targets—and let the situation deescalate in lieu of a final deal. "I would like to say to [the president] as a supporter, I truly believe in your message and your mission. You did do amazing things for this country. Come back—77 million of us do still support you; you can walk this back. We want to help you." So far, National Guard units from 18 states have participated in the Iran War, continuing to act as the backbone of the U.S. Armed Forces. "The dirty secret of the War on Terror, but really a lot of our enduring overseas deployments, is we need the Guard to actually do those. When I was over in Syria...I visited with the Iowa National Guard. They were running most the operations inside of Syria, they were the ones who lost those three to the Al-Qaeda insider attack. So, the U.S. military would be in a very bad way if they couldn't immediately grab National Guard guys to fill in all these different gaps and capabilities." Kent supports the Defend the Guard Act, which would prohibit the deployment of a state's National Guard into overseas combat unless Congress has voted to declare war, utilizing federalism as a way to enforce Article I, Section 8. "I think the states grabbing control of that, it gives us more power as the American people." "We definitely have a problem right now where we want an empire, and we're not very good at empire, and it's costing us our republic," Kent counseled. Our organization was founded in 2019 by veterans of the Global War on Terror opposed to endless, undeclared wars. Kent said he'd like to see more veterans take up initiative for the good of the country. "I don't get a lot of push back from War on Terror vets. I get a lot of support. And I think the more War on Terror vets we have step up into some sort of leadership position, especially in the foreign policy realm, I think the better off we'll be because we can say this is a bad idea. I think had more of us been in the room when these decisions were being made on this last iteration of war, I don't think it would have happened." When asked why it's so difficult for the ideas of Dr. Paul to penetrate Congress and the bureaucracy, Kent explained, "There's no special interest groups that are going to get rich by saying we don't need more war...There's just so many moneyed interests which are making a killing off of sending us to war." Our team is immensely grateful for Joe Kent's service, his patriotism, and most importantly his loyalty to the men and women he served with 🇺🇸

🚨EXCLUSIVE🚨 @joekent16jan19, former Director of the National Counterterrorism Center who resigned in principled opposition to the Iran War, spoke with our Chairman @DanMcKnight30 at the @RonPaulInstitut. Kent was an early endorser of @DefendTheGuard in 2022. "When I saw the casualties starting to come in, that for me was like, this is going to keep going and I can't be a part of this. I need to speak out to hopefully prevent more casualties from continuing to come in and to stop the bleeding," Kent explained. "The level of Israeli influence within our government, it's something I didn't understand until I was actually in it. And that's something major that we have to get out of our political system." Kent's proposal is that the Trump administration take a page from Ronald Reagan, and use his precedent from Lebanon in 1984 to withdraw our troops from the Middle East—removing Iranian targets—and let the situation deescalate in lieu of a final deal. "I would like to say to [the president] as a supporter, I truly believe in your message and your mission. You did do amazing things for this country. Come back—77 million of us do still support you; you can walk this back. We want to help you." So far, National Guard units from 18 states have participated in the Iran War, continuing to act as the backbone of the U.S. Armed Forces. "The dirty secret of the War on Terror, but really a lot of our enduring overseas deployments, is we need the Guard to actually do those. When I was over in Syria...I visited with the Iowa National Guard. They were running most the operations inside of Syria, they were the ones who lost those three to the Al-Qaeda insider attack. So, the U.S. military would be in a very bad way if they couldn't immediately grab National Guard guys to fill in all these different gaps and capabilities." Kent supports the Defend the Guard Act, which would prohibit the deployment of a state's National Guard into overseas combat unless Congress has voted to declare war, utilizing federalism as a way to enforce Article I, Section 8. "I think the states grabbing control of that, it gives us more power as the American people." "We definitely have a problem right now where we want an empire, and we're not very good at empire, and it's costing us our republic," Kent counseled. Our organization was founded in 2019 by veterans of the Global War on Terror opposed to endless, undeclared wars. Kent said he'd like to see more veterans take up initiative for the good of the country. "I don't get a lot of push back from War on Terror vets. I get a lot of support. And I think the more War on Terror vets we have step up into some sort of leadership position, especially in the foreign policy realm, I think the better off we'll be because we can say this is a bad idea. I think had more of us been in the room when these decisions were being made on this last iteration of war, I don't think it would have happened." When asked why it's so difficult for the ideas of Dr. Paul to penetrate Congress and the bureaucracy, Kent explained, "There's no special interest groups that are going to get rich by saying we don't need more war...There's just so many moneyed interests which are making a killing off of sending us to war." Our team is immensely grateful for Joe Kent's service, his patriotism, and most importantly his loyalty to the men and women he served with 🇺🇸

Bring Our Troops Home was founded in 2019 by veterans of the Global War on Terror, and today we recruit legislators and activists to @DefendTheGuard. Our bill has been introduced in over 30 states. Enlist in our movement with a $20 monthly pledge: secure.anedot.com/bringourtroops…

It appears there's a much needed time-out in the Iran War. Let's take inventory with @DanMcKnight30. Can these ceasefire terms be classified as any kind of victory? Did we lose? And most importantly, what action must we take to prevent more conflicts like this in the future?