Atlanta - Presidential candidate Chase Oliver supports Defend the Guard initiatives that reaffirm that Congress - not the president - has the sole power to declare war.
“Just a few weeks ago, three members of the Georgia National Guard were killed in Jordan,” Oliver, 38, testified Feb. 13 before the Georgia Senate Committee.
“Some people are using this as an excuse to go to war with Iran. I’m using this as a reason why those troops should have never been there to begin with, and we should have had Defend the Guard legislation passed,” says the Libertarian candidate who topped the field in four Libertarian primaries and participated in the Free and Equal debate.
Three Army Reserve troops from Fort Moore, Ga. died, and 41 National Guard troops were injured when an Iranian-backed Shia group launched the lethal attack Jan. 28 on Tower 22, a U.S. military post in Rukban, Jordan. The injured troops came from Guard units from Arizona, California, Kentucky, and New York.
These deaths and injuries bring added cruelty - these deployments would not have happened if Defend the Guard had been in place.
Defend the Guard initiatives seek to enforce existing constitutional provisions requiring a formal declaration of war by Congress before National Guard troops are deployed into active combat zones overseas. These initiatives would restore state authority over their Guard troops, ensuring that the decision to send troops into harm's way is made with the utmost deliberation and accountability - through a declaration of war.
As of today 26 states, including Oliver’s home state of Georgia, have introduced Defend the Guard legislation.
According to a press release from the National Guard Bureau, more than 27,000 National Guard troops serve “in support of overseas operations, including 8,300 in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility.”
Oliver got his start in politics opposing the war under former President George W. Bush, and he describes himself as anti-war to the core.
“It’s time we focus our foreign policy on peace. We should end our policy of sending drones around the world and instead foster international goodwill by defending free trade and free markets. Our nation has long had the moniker ‘leader of the free world.’ It is time we earn that distinction by insisting that peace is the way forward,” Oliver says,“End the wars. End the drones. End the policy of constant intervention.”