Rep. Justin Amash (I-MI-03) slammed President Donald Trump for treating U.S. troops like “paid mercenaries” in a Sunday interview while stoking rumors that he may launch a presidential run as a Libertarian candidate.
“I don’t think we should have been in Syria without congressional approval. We never had congressional approval for the mission. I think the president should’ve withdrawn troops long ago, but when you withdraw troops you have to plan ahead of time how to handle it,” Amash began the interview, explaining his stance on President Trump’s decision to remove troops from Syria.
Amash said the president failed to “prepare in advance for the obvious consequences” in his Sunday morning appearance on “Meet the Press.”
“He certainly knew what Turkey would do, and then he acted surprised that they’re coming in and committing acts of violence,” said Amash, who famously left the Republican Party earlier this year and now supports the impeachment inquiry.
Amash said later in the interview that it’s “pretty clear” President Trump isn’t bringing soldiers home, but instead is “just moving them to other parts of the Middle East.”
“He’s moving troops back into Iraq. He’s moving other troops into Saudi Arabia, and he’s using our forces almost as mercenaries, they’re paid mercenaries, who are going to go in and as long as Saudi Arabia pays us some money it’s good to go,” Amash said. “What happened to the American people having their voices heard through their representatives in Congress? We should make those decisions in Congress.”
On the topic of supporting impeachment, Amash said he thinks his constituents would’ve supported him in a Republican primary even if he didn’t leave the party.
“I don’t think so. I was comfortable sticking to my principles regardless and I’ve built up enough of a reputation in my district. They know I’m independent. They know I will do what I believe in and stand by what I said on the campaign trail,” Amash said. “I’ve been frustrated for a long time with the party system. I’ve been frustrated with the way Washington works.”
Host Chuck Todd asked Amash at the end of the interview if he will “100 percent” run for reelection or if he “could still run for another office.”
“No, I wouldn’t say 100 percent of anything,” Amash replied as Todd noted there’s been “talk of a Libertarian presidential candidate.”
“Yeah, I’m running for Congress but I keep things open. I wouldn’t rule anything out,” Amash said.
Watch the full interview:
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Anthony Gockowski is managing editor of Battleground State News, The Ohio Star, and The Minnesota Sun. Follow Anthony on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Sad to say, but Horatio Bunce is correct in his critique. Each deployment in a war torn area should have continuing (not rubber stamped) assessment of the situation refreshed daily, at least 3 bug out scenarios and plans updated daily. How old was the last CentComm assessment of the Syria zone where ISIS captives were held, where the Northern Kurds were given border land inside Syria, where Turkey was arming up for something looking more and more like an invasion, and where U.S. advisors and trainers were backing up the Kurds. If CentComm took the attitude that the combination was not a disaster waiting to happen, they should be transferred to writing Polar Bear reports in the Arctic.
Rep. Amash appears to be letting his personal dislike for the President cloud his judgement on what’s: a) Constitutional and, b) good for our country. He notes that we never should have had troops there to begin with and in the same breath criticizes the administration for withdrawing troops. Which is it Congressman?
President Trump last December declared his intent to withdraw troops – he was talked out of it by Gen. Mattis, et al. So that gave the groups in the region (they’re not all Kurds BTW) more than ample time to seek reconciliation with the legitimate Syrian government. They didn’t, but now that their back is up against the dune, they did – and the initial results appear to be headed toward a quadruple win and, as Sen. Paul put it, it is likely to be the best thing that has happened to the Kurds.
The various terror groups and opportunist, meh, not so much. Syria, Turkey, Russia and Iran all have extremely robust intelligence capabilities – they will sort it out PDQ now that the US is no longer standing in the way of progress.
The game all along has been in the name of regime change, i.e., continuing destabilization of a viable nation with the end goal of a puppet government installed by the globalists. That simply does not square with President Trump’s commitment to nationalism as reflected in his address to the UN in September: Excerpt:
“If you want freedom, take pride in your country. If you want democracy, hold on to your sovereignty. And if you want peace, love your nation. Wise leaders always put the good of their own people and their own country first.”
Instead of making good use of the time,, they and their globalists enablers thought they could just run out the clock until they could depose President Trump.
So to say we didn’t afford time for an orderly withdrawal process is disingenuous – even intellectually dishonest. Sad.
If he makes a Presidential run on an independent and/or Libertarian ticket, all he will achieve is splitting the vote to such an extent that one of the lunatics on the left may actually win. Not good.
The U.S. Congress has not issued a declaration of war according to the U.S. Constitution since spring of 1942.
But they have sent the U.S. military to commit acts of war many, many, many times since then – like paid mercenaries working for the United Nations.
They have refused to hold a vote on Constitutional letters of Marque and Reprisal which would at least legally (constitutionally) recognize their UN mercenary force as privateers (2001).
They also have approved appropriations for Department of Defense weapons to be funneled to create/arm/reload entities like Al Queda, Taliban, ISIS/IS/etc. via the CIA that eventually were and are used against our own military.