Where are the anti-war Democrats?

Only 57 members of the House voted against the $40 billion slush fund to Ukraine, and now President Biden is sending hundreds of troops to Somalia. What happened to the anti-war Democrats?

Today, President Biden has sent several hundred American troops to…Somalia. He’s already pushed us to the brink of war with Russia (for no good reason) - why is he redeploying troops to Somalia? What interests does the United States have there?

America is in dire straits. We have rising gas prices, extreme inflation, and even a shortage of baby formula. Instead of dealing with those issues - issues which impact Americans of every background, the President has decided that dedicating himself to absurd, warmongering foreign policy is a better use of his time and power. Most concerning, though, is the lack of pushback from Congress - the only body in the US government constitutionally capable of exercising war powers. The 2001 AUMF is, of course, so vague that it allows for a President to unilaterally make decisions on troops deployments.

Constitutionally, there is no justification for a President to send troops to foreign lands without a Congressional declaration of war. But such a declaration is beyond unlikely - it simply won’t happen. There is no longer an anti-war party in the United States. There is only a faction (among the GOP) that sincerely believes in Constitutional and formal war declarations. Remember, only 57 members of Congress voted against the $40 billion slush fund aid package to Ukraine. Even “the Squad” of super-progressive Democrats voted in favor. To be woke is to be in favor of war, it seems.

So what does this all means? Why is the pro-war party (the Democrats) gladly allowing a President to unconstitutionally send troops back into Somalia after President Trump’s massive withdrawal from the war-torn, backwater country? Al-Shabab. An Al-Qaeda affiliated group in North Africa, is present in Somalia. That’s the real, honest answer. Their presence is literally all it takes for the 2001 AUMF to be “legally” activated, and for troops to be deployed under it’s guise of anti-terrorism. Is it a distraction from Ukraine? Maybe. Is it a further attempt for President Biden to seem tough internationally? Almost definitely.

No President ought to feel this comfortable sending our troops into harm’s way. As suggested by Joe Kent, a Conservative congressional candidate running in Washington’s 3rd district: “We must end the post 9/11 AUMF, no more blank checks for wars. Make POTUS request a new AUMF from congress each time he wants to go to war.”

Is that unreasonable…to anyone? Why should the President be allowed to unconstitutionally declare war, for lack of a better phrase, without congressional approval? At the very least shouldn’t a new AUMF be required for each new troop deployment (read: undeclared war)?

What happened to the anti-war Left? “…on Feb. 15, 2003, somewhere between 6 million to 11 million people turned out in at least 650 cities around the world to protest the United States’ push to invade Iraq. It was the largest anti-war protest and remains the largest one-day global protest the world has ever seen.”

During the Iraq War, we saw massive anti-war rallies from the Democrats, similar to the ones we saw during the Vietnam War. Now, there is a blank check for any President to send troops abroad for no good reason (the war on terror!) - as if the United States doesn’t have a crippling inflation problem, a terrifying sleepwalk toward war with Russia, extreme unemployment rates, and life-threatening shortages of necessary goods like baby formula.

What happened to the anti-war left? Does “woke” progressivism allow for endless wars, so long as we color our missiles in rainbow paint in BLM flags? How is it that (quite literally) no Democrat opposes war these days? When did they relinquish their anti-war title to the GOP, and why?

It’s clear that the Democrats are the pro-war party. It’s also clear that the only anti-war party (or group within a party) are a handful of Republicans. This is a disaster. The United States prospers when we have debate, when we abide by Constitutional rules for foreign military engagement, and when those engagements are rare. Our best hope is to vote for anti-war candidates in November. There is NO good reason for American troops to die for a senile President’s ego or approval ratings. And, of course, there’s no good reason for Somalians to die for those reasons either.

If your representative isn’t speaking out against this, or this Ukraine war, it is in your best interest (and the best interest of the United States), both fiscally and morally, to vote them out of office in November. Folks like Anthony Sabatini, Joe Kent, Thomas Massie, and Chip Roy are the sort of people we, the anti-war crowd, ought to be voting for. AOC is just as much as a Raytheon shill as any other Neocon. In fact, almost every member of Congress is. Remember to check out the 57 members of the House who voted against the $40 billion Ukraine war fund when you vote for primary candidates. And if you’re not following him on Twitter already - follow Scott Horton for sane commentary on US foreign policy.

The United States has become a warmongering empire. It’s not too late to reverse this - but it requires voting the warmongers out of office this year. Any member who voted for the Ukraine slush fund should be voted out. Remember to check the list. It’s not only about saving money, it’s also about saving lives - the lives of American troops and the lives of innocent foreigners who will become victims of Biden’s attempt to appear tough on the international stage.