|
|
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
|
State
Rep. Tony Payton |
|
Payton works to bring state National Guard home
HARRISBURG, Feb. 14 – State Rep. Tony Payton, D-Phila., said he will introduce legislation calling on the president and Congress to end the war and bring state National Guard troops home from Iraq.
“One day in Iraq costs the American people $720 million,” Payton said. “That’s 6,482 new homes for American families, 84 new elementary schools or 34,000 four-year scholarships for university students. It’s time to end this war and help our people at home.”
In 2002 Congress authorized the federal government to take authority of the state Guard to serve in Iraq under an Authorization for the Use of Military Force, which limited the authorization to the purposes of defending national security from Iraqi threats and to enforce U.N. Security Council resolutions relating to Iraq.
Payton explained those purposes included the belief that weapons of mass
destruction existed and the resulting idea that U.N. resolutions needed to be
enforced. The Iraqi government is no longer thought to be a threat to national
security.
“It’s time to bring our National Guard home,” Payton said. “Under law, the reasons that existed six years ago for sending them overseas no longer hold weight. The authority of Pennsylvania’s National Guard should be returned to its rightful place with our governor.”
People enlisting in the state Guard simultaneously enlist in the National Guard of the United States, a part of the Army. The enlistees retain their status as state Guard members unless and until ordered to active federal duty, and they revert to state status upon being released from federal service.
###ac/2008/agh
l:\print\releases\ state guard.179