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H.B. 404, which has been introduced in Montana by Representative Lee Deming, is the Defend The Guard bill, which requires an official declaration of war before sending Montana’s National Guard troops off to fight wars on foreign soil. This bill was introduced with 51 co-sponsors and is very popular amongst local Libertarians and Republicans. The bill has yet to gain ground amongst Democrats – a shock, given that the political left used to promote an anti-war stance.
Ray Southward, active in championing H.B. 404, explained that when his son was deployed in Iraq, he did not come home the same person as when he left. Southward explains, “My son didn’t come home the same. With PTSD, nightmares, drinking, anger – he struggled for years, even pulling a gun on me in a combat-driven flashback. The VA couldn’t help unless he asked. He was fired from jobs, overmedicated, and locked in a rubber room – this is what multiple deployments did to him. It took over a decade to get him back.”
Some legislators argue that National Guardsmen know what they’re in for when they are deployed for combat missions. But what about those who never signed up to go off to [foreign] war[s]? For example, when I turned eighteen, my stepfather burst into tears, telling me what it was like when he turned eighteen and had to watch his brother go off to fight in Vietnam. In the Vietnam War, the draft was instituted in America, and individuals were forced to go. This sort of thing can and will happen again unless our country passes common-sense legislation, like H.B. 404, to hold our elected officials accountable to the Constitution they swore an oath to uphold.
Although the bill has broad support thus far, some legislative hold-outs argue that supporting it would mean a cut to Montana’s National Guard funding. In response, Diego Rivera, Director of Field Operations for Bring Our Troops Home, states that “they did not swear an oath to federal funding.”
With this bill, Montana has the chance to be the first state to pass Defend the Guard legislation and begin the process of ensuring that all of our wars are officially declared wars, as required by the Constitution.
