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GOP Congresswoman Carol Miller (WV-1) voted against bringing American troops home from Syria when Freedom Caucus Rep. Matt Gaetz put forth legislation last year to do just that. Now, with the Middle East in flames, Americans in Syria and elsewhere are falling under attack and the country is on the verge of going back to war.
Carol Miller was among the 171 House Republicans and 150 Democrats who voted to keep American forces in Syria last March, where they’ve been since 2014 with no declaration of war, just a loose political justification for their continued deployment, which is covered under the post-9/11, 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force – which was enacted a whopping 13 years before current operations in Syria began.
As of January 2024, nearly 10 years since Barack Obama sent Americans into Syria to combat ISIS, which his administration started in the first place with the help of Republican war hawks, several hundred troops remain in the country, where America is supporting anti-Syrian government militant groups tied to Al-Qaeda.
At least 11 American military personnel and 18 civilian military contractors have been killed there, and that number could be on the verge of rising as Iran and its proxies launch rocket and drone attacks in response to American support of Israel’s war in Gaza.
Last year, when Rep. Matt Gaetz introduced his pro-peace legislation to withdraw American troops from Syria, he told Congress that “since we have been [in Syria], we have seen Americans die [and] we have seen tens of billions of dollars wasted.”
“And what is hilarious about the 2001 [Authorization for the Use of Military Force] that the neoconservatives wave around like some permission slip for every neoconservative fantasy of turning an Arabian desert into a Jeffersonian Democracy, is that that very 2001 AUMF would justify attacking the people we’re fighting against, and the people we’re funding. Because both have ties to Al-Qaeda!”
Watch Matt Gaetz discuss how ridiculous it is to keep American troops in Syria in the video clip below:
Thank you @RepMattGaetz for boldly introducing this resolution to remove our troops from Syria. For those interested, here is the roll call for today’s vote. 103 Representatives, including myself, voted to end our involvement in this war: https://t.co/9ojT4elxgB https://t.co/8zjclZFt4n
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) March 9, 2023
