2009/08/25:La Crosse Tribune: Bring our National Guard troops home - Duane Teschler

Submitted by staff on Fri, 08/28/2009 - 9:24am

Duane Teschler of La Crosse sent this Letter to the Editor to the La Crosse Tribune:

I put before you the request that you support Bill 203 and have our Wisconsin National Guard troops brought back home. Their current deployment is illegal and perpetrated by lies and deceit of the Bush regime and is being followed by the current administration.

We need the Wisconsin National Guard in Wisconsin to serve us in times of disaster at home, such as when we had such massive floodings around the Dells and Vernon County.

This bill will require the governor to ensure that no Wisconsin Guard unit is unlawfully released into national service. It directs the governor to review every federal call-up of the National Guard for its legality, and where there is no lawful basis for Guard federalization, to take action to keep the Wisconsin Guard at home.

This campaign is really about following the law as set forth by the U.S. Congress. With this legislation, the states can begin to reassert their historic national defense responsibilities and honor the Constitution's genius for distributing power over issues of war and peace.

This legislation can help bring an end to the illegal and immoral war and occupation of Iraq. The authority under which the Wisconsin Guard was deployed to Iraq was the Authorization for the Use of Military Force passed by Congress in 2002. That AUMF limited authorized military action to two purposes: 1) to force Iraq to comply with then extant U.N. Security Council resolutions; and 2) to defend the national security of the United States against the continuing threat allegedly posed by Iraq. Now that Saddam Hussein has been removed from power and we know that Iraq does not have - and never had - any weapons of mass destruction, the original mission has been completed. Therefore, there is no legal basis for sending the Wiscon-sin National Guard to Iraq .

Please join us in restoring the rule of law. Support Assembly Bill 203.

Duane Teschler - La Crosse

(Photo: Duane vigils for peace in La Crosse - photo courtesy of Bill Christofferson, Iraq Moratorium)