“Know ye not, Who would be free, themselves must strike the blow?” – Lord Byron

Last night at a local candidates’ night I gave the below speech, though the bracketed paragraphs were cut out due to time limitations.  The event was co-sponsored by the Lehigh Valley Tea Party and Lehighton Tea Party.  My Republocrat competition – for the second event in a row – failed to show up.

During the past 6 years, the official national debt has nearly doubled from $7.6 to $13.5 trillion. Per the US Treasury, the unfunded liabilities for Social Security and Medicare is $107 trillion dollars, which is nearly $400,000 for every man, woman, and child. What has the taxpayer gotten in return?

During the past 6 years, the number of service members killed in Afghanistan has risen from 160 to 1,311.

During the past 6 years, unemployment locally has doubled from 5 to 10%. The number of people living on food stamps has increased from 25 to 41 million which is nearly 1 in 8 Americans.

Now over 3 in 4 Americans live paycheck to paycheck, a figure which has about doubled since 2006. What has the taxpayer gotten in return?

We must stop the endless debt. I have pledged to balance the budget each year, and I have called upon my competitors to join me, and they have chosen to not do so.

I am against taxpayer bailouts of corporations like the TARP Banker Bailout. Mr. Dent voted to bailout the bankers, and Mr. Callahan has stated he would’ve voted FOR the bill as well. (source)  (Photo courtesy Roger Smith)

The banker bailouts served to benefit the government’s favorite corporations at the expense of every individual in America, costing close to $10,000 per household. By creating more future debt, the government worsens the present situation and places our next generation into unsustainable levels of debt.

Whether it is the military-industrial complex, Big Oil, Big Pharm, Big Ag, or the financial firms who bankroll their career politicians into power, the crony corporatism and revolving door between the government and Wall Street must end. I am the only candidate to not accept and pledge never to accept, money from corporations and lobbyist groups.

To create jobs, we must first realize that the massive unemployment we have today is purely a creation of the governments’ interventions in the economy. There is no shortage of work to be done, we must only stop the government’s harmful interventions in the tax, labor, and regulatory laws. To do this we must simply ask ourselves one simple question – does this law encourage or discourage employment? If it discourages employment, then Congress should change or amend the current laws.

While I am for some regulations like reinstating Glass-Steagall and closing loopholes in accounting laws so banks and Wall Street investment firms can no longer pull off accounting tricks, many other wasteful, ineffective regulations like the $100 billion dollar-a-year Sarbanes-Oxley Act must be removed since they place American firms at a disadvantage with the rest of the world.

To stimulate the economy, we could abolish the income tax for 50% of all Americans and lose less than 3% of all income tax collected or have an income tax holiday for several months.  This is a lot of dollars to help assist individuals, and very little income to the federal government – they increase the national debt by the same few billion just about every day. It would be easy enough to cut some of the government to pay for this, as well as reduce the salaries of federal workers who make an average salary of $71,000, which is about twice the median household income.

Governments do not create sustainable jobs, only people do. Government’s role is to preserve individual liberties and a sound business environment by enforcing punishments for fraud, contract violations, theft, and acts of aggression.

Now, the salary of a Congressman is $174,000. How can any voter believe that any candidate will represent them by slashing wasteful government spending if they fail to start with themselves?

That is why I will only accept the district’s median household income of $58,000. I will donate the remaining $116,000 to local non-profit hospitals to help provide health care to the poor. I will not enlist in the federal healthcare plan nor the congressional pension plan.

I have called upon Mr. Callahan and Mr. Dent to join me and cut the reckless federal spending by starting with themselves, and they have chosen to not do so.

Our founders clearly realized that all power stems from the PEOPLE, from US, and all officers of government are NOT masters, but SERVANTS. That is why I came up with an accountable and transparent form of open government where all residents will have a public voice to comment on all house floor votes called Our Open Office. Unlike the career politicians in power, I will always tell you WHY I voted each way, and in that way I will be held accountable to the people.

Now, Americans are not faced with many good choices between the Republicans or Democrats. It is more like the Arsenic Party versus the Cyanide Party. Each party tries to convince you that their Arsenic tastes great, but the other party’s cyanide will kill you.

The two-headed, one-party system that controls the federal government is repeating like a bad record – “MORE spending, MORE taxes, MORE war, MORE debt.” If you flip the record, all you hear is “LESS liberty, LESS safety, FEWER jobs, LESS prosperity.”

Now I would like to talk for a moment about a group of Americans who write a check for up to and including their lives to defend our country. Under the US Constitution, Congress has the responsibility to provide healthcare to every veteran for physical or mental trauma sustained while in the military. Many veterans suffer for their LIFETIMES from post-traumatic stress disorder, missing limbs, and brain injuries.

5,735 soldiers have died so far in the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars. [In Afghanistan, more troops have died under the 2 years of Obama administration than under the 7 years of Republican rule.] Around 32,000 have been wounded in Iraq alone, and behind each of these casualties are families and loved ones.

Just this weekend I was knocking on doors and a gentleman had to stop talking, all choked up, since his brother was killed in Afghanistan.

Since the War on Terror began in 2001, the expenditures for the Department of Veterans Affairs have skyrocketed from $48 to $125 billion dollars. Health care should never be lessened or denied to our veterans, but there are ways to cut costs and improve care at the same time.

For instance, most veterans are required to travel to far-away VA hospitals to obtain treatment and medicine in facilities that are very sub-par. In fact, rural heath initiatives to treat vets who live far from cities for the 2010 alone increased by over 600% to nearly a half billion dollars! Instead of requiring these veterans to go to the relatively few VA hospitals, they should be free to go to ANY existing hospital and a doctor of their choosing for treatment.

Veterans also face difficulty in obtaining employment upon retirement or separation from the military. In order to assist veterans, a temporary federal income tax credit could be granted to employers who hire veterans. This is a zero-cost benefit to veterans and employers alike.

It’s crucial that we have a strong military to deter attacks against the our country and protect it when attacked. However, asking our young men and women to participate in unjust war is a moral abyss that we as a country should NEVER leap into. If we aspire to be a just nation ruled by laws we must resolve to NEVER ask our military men and women to engage in unconstitutional warfare and nation-building missions.

That said, the United States of America has unfinished business with the al-Qaeda terrorist group. However, we are going about it all the wrong way for the past two decades.

The greatest threat to our national security is the national debt, not boogeymen living in caves in Pakistan. Osama Bin Laden and his ilk will never destroy America – it will be the Congress who first destroy the country financially and economically by looting our blood and treasure.  This is the true threat to our way of life.

George Washington would be aghast at our attempts to defeat Al-Qaeda. During the Revolutionary War, the mighty British empire was not defeated militarily by the colonists – George Washington lost just about every single major battle. Instead, Washington won the war by merely surviving, by causing the British to expend vast amounts of treasure and troops over a 3,000 mile supply chain.

The government spends well over $1 trillion dollars a year on our foreign adventures, with over 760 military bases in 150 of the world’s 194 countries, yet we do NOT have a strong national defense of our borders. We have 55,000 troops in Germany and 10,000 troops in Italy.

Why should the American taxpayer defend rich Europeans from a communist USSR that fell apart 20 years ago, so those same rich Europeans can cut their defense budgets to protect their welfare spending? Didn’t WWII end 70 years ago?

[However, the fact remains that the threat of suicide terrorism is enhanced – NOT lessened – by the conventional armies stationed abroad in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Suicide terrorist groups – whether Al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, or the Tamil Tigers - have a single strategic goal in mind – to compel modern democracies to withdraw military forces from territory that the terrorists consider to be their homeland.]

[Although Osama Bin Laden was a CIA “asset” against the Soviets in Afghanistan during the 1980s, if one reads the 9/11 Commission Report, one will find a very long record of inaction in tracking down Bin Laden who bombed US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania killed 12 American citizens in 1998 and was also tied to the USS Cole and the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.]

However, hurling armies of tens of thousands after Bin Laden is not cost effective, nor is it constitutional – nor has it succeeded after the past 9 years. Our nations’ generals admit there are less than 100 Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, and yet to capture them the taxpayer is paying to send 100,000 troops – plus many more contractors – at a cost of over $1 million apiece to fight with one pack of tribal warlords against another pack of tribal warlords. Each gallon of gas burned in the Afghanistan War costs the taxpayer $400 per the Pentagon.

A strong national defense begins right here at home with our borders, not the borders of Iraq, Germany, and Italy. If one takes the time to read the Iraq and Afghanistan constitutions that the US guided them in writing, you will find that taxpayers here are not creating democracies or rule of law – they are creating impossible utopian governments that operate under sharia law.

We have our own Constitution, and it is about time we began following it!

To defeat suicide terrorists one must capture the current generation and prevent the next generation from being created from collateral damage. Capture of the terrorists who caused 9/11 will best be attained by small units of special forces acting to enforce the law under constitutional warrants called letters of marque and reprisal and increasing bounties for the wanted criminals. Without vastly expensive armies stationed on foreign lands, creating unintended damage and death to the civilian population, the next generation of suicide terrorists will have no reason to exist.

This November 2^nd, you can keep voting for those who caused all this economic strife or you can vote for a problem solver who not only has the solutions, but who will listen and be accountable to you.

I have more private sector experience than Mr. Dent, and more industrial experience working abroad than Mr. Callahan. I have a proven track record of results and success as a leader and serving customers.  I am the only candidate with some formal background in the study of economics.

Washington has far too many rulers, and not enough servants of the people. When I am elected, I will be your public servant, your employee.

Congress continues to vote for more debt, more war, and fewer jobs every year they remain in power. It is like my father once told me – “If you always do what you always did, you will always get what you always got.”

What have the people of the 15^th district received by voting for the Republocrats?  The same results – more taxes, more debt, more war, and less liberty.

For those of you who think you will be throwing your vote away by voting independent, nothing could be further from the truth. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Your parties have betrayed you.

Your parties have lied to you.

Your parties have let you down.

This year you have a real choice in voting independent. I humbly ask for your vote this November 2^nd.  (end)

Upcoming Events!!

• PA Liberty Conference. Friday, October 8.  I will be sharing the “Our Open Office” idea with this group at 3 PM in Harrisburg, PA.  Ticketed event, see here for details.
• Crop Walk, October 10th in Bethlehem, registration at 1p.m. under the Hill-To-Hill Bridge, Main and Spring streets.  This charity event benefits soup kitchens around the Lehigh Valley, including the one I volunteer at every week.  The walk begins at 1:30 p.m.  MAP.  Please RSVP to towneforcongress@gmail.com or call 610-392-8156.
• WFMZ-69 Debate to be televised live, October 13 on WFMZ-69, 8 PM.
• Lunch with Allentown Rotary Club, Friday, October 15 at the Holiday Inn, 12:30-1 PM.  904 W. Hamilton Streets, Allentown, PA 18101.  Map.  Briefly address and answer questions from this group.
• Nazareth Area of Commerce Debate on Monday, October 18th, from 9:30-11 AM.  Economic focus.  Tickets are necessary for breakfast, see www.nazarethchamber.com.  Location is Rt 22 and 512 at the Best Western.
• Morning Call Online Chat, online at noon on October 19th.  URL TBA.
• East Penn Taxpayer’s Association Candidates Night on October 19th, 7:30 PM.  Open to the public, will speak for a few minutes and answer questions.  Emmaus Fire Co. #1 on 610 Broad Street, Emmaus, PA.  MAP.
• Pen Argyl Area Concerned Citizens Debate, Wednesday, October 20, evening, exact time/place to be announced.
• De Sales University Debate, Thursday, October 21, 7:30-9 PM in Center Valley, PA.  Located in the Commonwealth Room in the University Center (Building #48 in this map).  Open Q&A from the audience.
• Express Times Debate, Monday, October 25 at the State Theatre in Easton, 7 PM.  453 Northampton Street
  Easton, PA 18042.  MAP.  Open to public.
• Northampton Community College Forum, October 28, 11 AM.  Open to public, Q&A. Location is the World War II Conference Room – CC117 located on the first floor of the College Center.  3835 Green Pond Rd Bethlehem, PA 18020.  Campus Map.
• NOVEMBER 2nd ELECTION DAY!! Volunteers are needed to hand out literature outside of local polling stations, please volunteer here and share your name, phone #, city, and if you live in the district, your current polling location.

Today is the ninth anniversary of a tragic day in American history. For all the turmoil, mourning, and strife, not much has come from the invasion of Afghanistan and the subsequent occupation of Iraq. Osama Bin Laden, the self-proclaimed mastermind behind the attacks on 9/11, is either dead or in hiding somewhere in Pakistan. It was a disgusting, cowardly criminal act against a large civilian population that has led our country to where it is today – but we must remember that the motivation used to recruit more anti-American sentiment comes from our endless meddling in Middle Eastern affairs.

Osama Bin Laden was trained and funded by the U.S. to fight the Soviets.  Saddam Hussein was trained and installed by the U.S. in Iraq.  Both actions have had far-reaching consequences for our country and yet we seem not to learn from these affairs.  Although “combat troops” have begun to be withdrawn from Iraq there is no evidence of an actual end to this war.

Five days after the announcement of reaching 50,000 troops, an Iraqi Army HQ in the heart of Baghdad was attacked by suicidal insurgents, and US troops were involved in the combat.  It is likely that 50,000 or more troops will stay indefinitely continuing the cycle of occupation that has befallen us with Germany, Japan, Korea and many other countries.

Our government is now building up the war in Afghanistan, a war that almost certainly cannot be won. Afghanistan has been the grave of many empires – a county which has NEVER been conquered by an outside force. President Karzai has declared that U.S. involvement will be needed in Afghanistan for at least another 10 years! At the same time our economy is in ruins and will only get worse unless we rein in spending and big government on a wide scale. The “hope and change” that was promised to the American people has proven to be nothing more than fuzzy rhetoric.

2010 could prove to be the most pivotal election year in American history. If the unconstitutional wars continue, if the occupations and nation-building missions do not end, if the military-industrial complex and growth of the state continue, there will surely be no return to liberty and freedom in America. Our founders were very wise in pursuing peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all, entangling alliances with none.

We, the people, have allowed our government to shred the Constitution, our only protection from tyrannical government. We have allowed them to pillage our wealth and violate our liberties and freedoms. We must end the notion that today’s government is a benevolent master – if we are to have peace and prosperity we must again force government to be a servant to the people.

The establishment candidates who support endless war and more and more spending are running scared right now. They are scared because they see that ordinary people like Jake Towne are gaining massive amounts of support for their “radical” ideas of peace, liberty, and constitutional limits to their power grabs.

Jake has made public his position on how best to serve our veterans and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  He will not back down to these career politicians who do not even give positions on the most important issues. For these it is politics as usual and they are hoping once again to pull the wool over everyone’s eyes.  As Jake wrote in his veterans plank a year ago today:

“Service members shoulder a heavy burden when they volunteer to risk their lives in defense of our country. They perform a necessary function in our society and for their service veterans receive deserved benefits and gratitude. However, the greatest way to honor them is to keep them out of unnecessary conflict. The only just war is one carried out in self-defense, as a non-aggressor, and as a last resort.

It’s important that we have a strong military to deter attacks against the our country and protect it when attacked. However, asking our young men and women to participate in unjust war is a moral abyss that we as a country should never leap into. If we aspire to be a just nation ruled by laws we must resolve to never ask our military men and women to engage in unconstitutional warfare and nation-building missions.”

We must not allow a great tragedy in American history become an even greater tragedy – the complete loss of liberty and freedom and the collapse of our fragile economy. Now is the time to join together to bring peace, liberty, and prosperity back to America. Please consider supporting Jake Towne in any way you can. Visit TowneForCongress to find out more and to voice your opinion on the issues and remember to cast your vote for freedom and constitutional government on November 2, 2010.

- former Staff Sergeant Aaron Emery, United States Army, who served in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

“The Republic was not established by cowards; and cowards will not preserve it.” – Elmer Davis

On June 6, 1944, a flotilla of transports set out for the coast of Normandy. They would land at five beaches codenamed Sword, Juno, Omaha, Gold, and Utah. Some beachheads were established with minimal resistance. Some beachheads were established in blood and gore, like Omaha’s.

In operational military code, the day was D-Day and the time was H-Hour. The only difference was that this was THE D-Day. My message, if you care to receive it, is that today is also D-Day, but a D-Day of a different flavor.

Our overlords are operating on the economy until it collapses. They are debasing our money supply by money-printing and will do so until the dollar is worthless.

Someone, somewhere is receiving the tax money WE paid for the broken businesses of AIG and Government Motors. Governments and the international central bankers at the FED and elsewhere are behind the whole charade.

They are frittering away the very civil liberties that our veterans cherished so much and fought so hard to protect.  Many of our soldiers may still believe this today, but they have been misled.

Our enemies are not to be found in the racial and religious groups clashing in Iraq. Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with 9/11 or any other terrorist group. When we hurled our finest 150,000 troops at him, he had no air force, no navy, and pathetic shreds of an army. He had no weapons of mass destruction, although Pakistan, India, Russia, the USA, China, Israel and other obviously do.

Our real enemies are also not to be found in Afghanistan and Pakistan – most (not all) of the forces arrayed against us are simply results of their violent tribal culture, which has known no peace for 30 years, combined with the “collateral damage” of innocents that we ourselves or our fickle tribal allies have caused. Did you know we did not send in military ground forces after bin Laden until five (5) months after the invasion began?

Did you know that the truth is, as Marine Major General and two-time Congressional Medal of Honor winner Smedley Butler once stated, that War is a Racket?

With our foreign policy of aggression and preemptive wars, we now risk far more damage to our wealth and our liberties than at any other time in our nation’s history, save during the scourge that was the Civil War and the Revolutionary War, where everything rode on the intelligence of brave patriots like George Washington, Thomas Paine, Samuel Adams, Patrick Henry, and Thomas Jefferson. (photo)

Liberty may once again teeter on a knife’s edge in the months and years to come. Whether we fall to socialism, poverty, and endless debt for our children is now up to US. The choice is OURS. My choice is to rally at the breach, defend freedom and protect the Constitution and to follow any other “citizens senior” who have not yet forgotten the true origins of our country.

If we do so, there is no doubt in my mind that in the years to come, our children will be very thankful they had heroes for their father and mothers. The ascent of man would resume its relentless upward march, and the benevolent forces of the free market will give each individual the chance to prosper by earning their true wealth. Through preserving individual liberties, promoting peace, and defending freedom, we will and can prosper.

Conceived in liberty, I will not let the Republic fall to the cowards who defile her without a bitter fight.  Both of my grandfathers served in WWII, and one fought in the Battle of the Bulge.  Now, for me, sixty-six years later, my D-Day has arrived.

You may decide for yourself whether my words ring true or as false and hollow as the “Change We Can Believe In” we were promised last fall.  Believe it or not, the Establishment – Republicans and Democrats both – were actually murmuring “Chains We Can Believe In.”

In loving remembrance of those soldiers who have died and quite thankful the cowards have not yet stripped away my freedom of speech — I faithfully remain,

Jake Towne, the Champion of the Constitution

The above piece was written June 6, 2009 and slightly modified for this year.  Unfortunately, I did not really need to change much.

Related Articles

Honor Our Veterans

Afghanistan War Plank

Iraq War Plank

Federal Reserve Plank

Bailouts and Corporatism Plank

The below clip is of Steve Wynn, a luxury resort CEO, talking about the instabilities of doing business in the United States.  He even pulls off a couple founding father quotes.

“If there was nothing thought to be impossible there would be no need for heroes.” - 英雄

Today’s holiday is for everyone to take a moment to remember and honor all our veterans.  Service members shoulder a heavy burden when they volunteer to risk their lives in defense of our country. They perform a necessary function in our society and for their service veterans receive deserved our gratitude.

However, the greatest way to honor them is to keep them out of unnecessary conflict. The only just war is one carried out in self-defense, as a non-aggressor, and as a last resort. It is important that we have a strong military to deter attacks against the our country and protect it when attacked. However, asking our young men and women to participate in unjust war is a moral abyss that we as a country should never leap into. If we aspire to be a just nation ruled by laws we must resolve to never ask our military men and women to engage in unconstitutional warfare and nation-building missions.

The best way for all of us to support the troops is to ensure they are never sent into combat rashly or without a firm goal.  This is just one of the many reasons why wars should never be initiated without a congressional declaration of war.  After nearly a decade of warfare after 9/11, I find the shirking of our representative’s constitutional responsibilities to be abhorrent.  It is also the duty of Congress to provide care for any physical or psychological damage veterans have suffered while defending our country, and their performance here is likewise lacking.

Below is the campaign’s veterans’ plank.  Iraq War plank.  Afghanistan War plank.

Veterans Plank

“Soldiers’ supreme wish is to avoid war, for the costs are inevitably paid with their blood and brains.“ – Jake Towne

There is no end in sight to the occupation of Iraq. Under President Obama, the wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan are accelerating. I believe that spending cuts have to be made everywhere in government if we are to curb errant spending and inflation from the FED, even including the Veterans Affairs Administration. The VA is a large government bureaucracy run much like a DMV to provide health care and benefits to our veterans. Long lines at VA hospitals, long waiting periods to receive benefits, poor treatment and bureaucratic red tape have plagued the VA for years. The federal Congress is constitutionally responsible for raising armies and navies, they are also responsible for providing care and benefits in return for the veteran’s willingness to place his body into harm’s way. There are several areas where free market principles can be applied to both increase the quality of care and options for our veterans and yet still cut costs.

Veterans Affairs Administration Budget (source)

2001 Fiscal Year Budget - $48 billion

2008 Fiscal Year Budget - $91 billion

Estimated 2009 Fiscal Year Budget - $98 billion (+7% from 2008)

Proposed 2010 Fiscal Year Budget - $113 billion (+15% from 2009, +134% from 2001)

Health Care

Health care and maintenance of VA medical facilities comprises 42.5% or approximately $45 billion of the proposed 2010 VA budget. I would like to remark here that, unlike the health care for private citizens, this particular area is different. We the People have made a contract with our veterans which states that they receive health care as part of their compensation for serving the common defense. Not only is this a moral contract, but it is fully constitutional per Article 1, Section 8 which states: “Congress shall have the power… to raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years [and] to provide and maintain a Navy.”

Many veterans suffer for their lifetimes from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), missing limbs, brain injuries, and other maladies. Health care should never be lessened or denied to these vets, but there are ways to cut costs and improve care at the same time. I want to add here that while I am fiscally quite conservative, the actual care provided to our veterans is not an area where I would skimp at all, but why waste money on bureaucracy?

Most veterans are required to travel to far-away VA hospitals to obtain treatment and medicine in facilities that are very sub-par, like the infamous Walter Reed scandal in 2007. In fact, rural heath initiatives to treat vets who live far from metro areas for the 2010 Fiscal Year budget alone increased by 633% to nearly a half billion dollars! (page 2/3) Instead of requiring veterans to go to the relatively few VA hospitals, they should be free to go to ANY existing hospital and a doctor of their choosing for treatment. Doctors currently practicing in VA hospitals would slowly be absorbed into existing hospitals and would therefore still be able to specialize in the treatment of unique, veteran-related medical conditions. This would also prevent long travel time to vets in rural areas and would be far more economically efficient.

Hospitals generally have fixed costs which include utilities, equipment cost and maintenance, and salaries. These costs are the same whether or not a hospital treats a few additional patients. Therefore, the additional marginal cost of treating vets at existing non-VA hospitals is far less than maintaining entire facilities rife with bureaucracy.

After this conversion process is complete, the existing VA facilities could be phased out and sold to private business in order to recoup costs associated with the transition.

Employment

Veterans often face difficulty in obtaining proper employment upon retirement or separation from the military. In order to expedite the process of obtaining employment a temporary federal income tax credit could be granted to employers who hire veterans this is a zero-cost benefit to veterans and employers alike and the money saved by companies employing vets would be put to better use, helping those businesses and the economy thrive.

The Combat Veterans Debt Elimination Act HR 5148

If a service member dies in combat and has previously collected GI Bill benefits, the family of the deceased is required to repay those benefits to the VA. So far the VA has attempted to recover over $56,000 from the families of 22 deceased service members. This is a complete travesty and should be stopped immediately with any money repaid thus far immediately given back to the families. The text for HR 5148 prohibits “the Secretary of Veterans Affairs from collecting certain debts owed to the United States by members of the Armed Forces and veterans who die as a result of an injury incurred or aggravated on active duty in a combat zone.” This would provide much-needed peace to the families of the deceased.

Refusal to Participate in Unconstitutional War

Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution of the United States gives Congress the power to declare war, not the President. The United States of America has not declared war since 1941, and since the Constitution is the supreme law of the land, the current wars are both unconstitutional.

I support dismissing any criminal charges against veterans, current service members, and civilians who have refused to participate in any unconstitutional military action. All service members swear an oath to “protect and defend the Constitution against all enemies, both foreign and domestic.” Any person refusing to violate the tenets of our Constitution by participating in unconstitutional warfare are fulfilling their oaths, and it is an outrage that any be tried in a court like a petty criminal. This includes, but is not limited to, America’s past military actions in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Vietnam, Yugoslavia, Somalia, Korea and Vietnam.

As Congressman, I would file a resolution to the executive branch that all veterans found guilty previously be pardoned immediately, and legislation to clarify that soldiers are not required to participate in unconstitutional warfare.

Military Draft

Forced military service is an affront to our liberties and rights and should never exist in a free society. History has shown that when faced with a threat against our homeland Americans respond and volunteer to defend our country. Unjust wars and foreign occupations, on the other hand, have shown a lack of support and usually result in a military draft.

Drafting males or females to join the military in non-combat roles is likewise morally wrong. Being an accomplice to forced aggression is morally only marginally better than committing the aggression itself. (As can be seen in the “Philosophy of Liberty“) This statement holds true whether the individual is a cook, mechanic, stationed in a peacekeeping role in the homeland, or a POW guard all are helping in the war effort, and throughout history armies have always needed just as many or more support personnel.

Likewise, the event of an imminent physical invasion (or a multitude of terrorist attacks) is no justification for a draft either. Individuals should be allowed to join the armed forces in a nation’s time of need of their own free will. In a truly free nation, it is my belief that there will be no need for a draft as We the People would gather to defend our freedoms from being stolen, our wealth plundered, and to protect our families.

The idea of using young people between the ages of 18 and 21 as raw material or cannon fodder is likewise morally unacceptable. In today’s America, it is my view, as a young American, that these years are certainly not those of childhood, but for the wide majority of 18-21-year-old Americans, I charge they are still in their formative ’self-seeking’ years, sent into harm’s way by those a decade or more older. For those who have already gone to college, do you remember how your life changed before and after college? Were you really mature enough to fight a brutal war? (Is one ever?) Our societies’ laws defy logic in that a person is old enough to be forced to fight a war but is not yet old enough to legally drink an alcoholic beverage.

Furthermore, forcing an individual to serve in the armed forces when they do not wish to do so is clearly involuntary servitude and as such is a blatant violation of the 13th Amendment.

As Congressman, I pledge to fight against any and all future attempts to institute a military draft, and I will attempt to specifically ban military drafts.

Individual Ready Reserve

The Individual Ready Reserve (IRR) is a pool of vets who have not yet completed eight years in the military. All service members are subject to eight (8) mandatory years of service upon entry and any of that time not served on active duty or in the reserves is spent in the IRR. Vets who have completed any length of service, up to 7 years and 364 days, are subject to recall by the military at any time up until the last day of their 8-year term.

This is a glorified form of a backdoor draft and is no way to thank our veterans for their service. As of March 2009, orders had been issued to 26,954 members of the IRR since September 2001. These numbers only reflect that of the Army, not the other services. Only 48% of those recalled have actually reported for duty. This is an illustration of the level of support these wars have among recent veterans.

As Congressman, I support ending the IRR mandatory service requirement immediately.

Conclusion

Service members shoulder a heavy burden when they volunteer to risk their lives in defense of our country. They perform a necessary function in our society and for their service veterans receive deserved benefits and gratitude. However, the greatest way to honor them is to keep them out of unnecessary conflict. The only just war is one carried out in self-defense, as a non-aggressor, and as a last resort.

It’s important that we have a strong military to deter attacks against the our country and protect it when attacked. However, asking our young men and women to participate in unjust war is a moral abyss that we as a country should never leap into. If we aspire to be a just nation ruled by laws we must resolve to never ask our military men and women to engage in unconstitutional warfare and nation-building missions.

September 11, 2009.  Special thanks for this plank goes to former Staff Sergeant Aaron Emery, United States Army, who served in Operation Iraqi Freedom.  Aaron was recalled under the IRR and has been decorated and honorably discharged twice – both before and after being recalled.

“Wars can be prevented just as surely as they can be provoked, and we who fail to prevent them, must share the guilt for the dead... Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war that we know about peace, more about killing that we know about living.”

- Five-Star General of the Army Omar Bradley, WWII veteran and Head of Veterans Affairs from 1946-1947

A 2-page handout for printing out is below, backup site is here.

Jake Towne for Congress – Veterans Plank