Tag Archives: Defend the Guard

Floor Speech

Unanimous Consent Speech – June 26, 2025

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Thank you Mr. Speaker.

I was going to save this for veto day, to be closer to the anniversary, but world events this past week motivated me to rise today.

On October 19, 2005, 6.5miles from the Syrian border along the Euphrates, 3rd Bn 6th Marines, Kilo Company, 1st Platoon, 3rd Squad was on a foot patrol along ASR Diamond in the Al’Qaim Region of the Al’Anbar province in Iraq. Random patrols through the community were meant to keep insurgents at bay, discourage the planting of IEDs and weapons caches, and build rapport with the community so they’d be more inclined to report suspicious activities in the area. On that day, there were warning signs, the children were acting strange, they didn’t follow the patrol asking for MREs or money like most days, the shops were closed. The patrol still went on, and heads were on a swivel. But readiness and vigilance can only do so much. Blind alleys between cinderblock walls are commonplace in Iraq.

I know this, because I was on that patrol. I saw the car leap out from the alley feet from Anderson. I heard the order from Thornton to “shoot that M-Fer”. I saw Anderson fire a precision shot through the windshield into the driver’s head. I witnessed the vehicle vaporize from within into a violent explosion. I don’t remember the sound, though. I remember picking myself up from the dirt after being knocked on my ass, miraculously uninjured. I remember running up the column to a roadside ditch to roll Sanford face-up. I remember he came to, thankfully alive. I remember repeatedly watching nearby rooftops for secondary attackers as was common throughout the war. I remember seeing Thornton realize he had a hole in his leg and he sat back down to tourniquet his own wound, still giving us orders to set up a perimeter. I remember Melo screaming, he was 2nd man in the column, and caught a bunch of shrapnel in his gut. And, hauntingly, I remember Hubbard exclaiming from up the road “Wally’s f-ing wasted, man!” Hubbard also had a wounded leg his adrenaline didn’t allow him to feel. Wally was the nickname of Lance Corporal Norman Anderson III, our point man, killed in action.

Later, it was determined by the EOD team in the Battalion QRF that the SVBIED’s hood release was wired as a deadman switch. Wally’s lightning fast acquisition of the target, and single shot saved the lives of every other member of the squad, myself included. Some of us have scars, both physical and psychological, but we are alive today because of the bravery and skill of that one man.

I’ve dedicated that life to speaking out against warmongering, advocating for tempered approaches, and skepticism towards the claims made by our intelligence agencies and the Pentagon. I ask you to join me in skepticism towards reports of “weapons of mass destruction,” claims that “we will be welcomed as liberators,” “mission accomplished,” assertions that there were long-term plans for Afghanistan and Iraq, or the blatant lies like “we will not put boots on the ground in Syria.” I push for skepticism against the intelligence community because their mistakes (giving extreme benefit of the doubt that they were JUST mistakes), cost the lives of the men and women whose patriotism drove them to join our all-volunteer military. We should not recklessly take advantage of that patriotism, we should not send them into harm’s way unless absolutely necessary to protect the lives of American citizens here at home.

I did not enlist after 9/11 to enact regime change in Iraq and I’d venture a guess it’d be rare to find soldiers, sailors, airmen, or marines that told their recruiters their explicit reason for signing up in the last few years was to march on Tehran. So when people chest-thump on Facebook and Twitter, and have whataboutism arguments about previous presidents’ actions over the last several decades of CONSTANT war through ALL of the administrations, remember the 2002 AUMF for Iraq passed bipartisanly 296 to 133 due to political pressure from the people. Remember how certain the intelligence community was about the manufacture of weapons of mass destruction. Remember the lies about Saddam being in league with bin Laden. Remember how most of the pundits and talking heads that pushed for the Iraq war, cheered it on, have since recanted. Remember that we never even passed an AUMF for Syria despite putting boots on the ground, and Al’Qaida is currently killing Alawites and Christians each day since we assisted them in taking the country from the Assad regime. Remember Iran is bigger than Iraq and Afghanistan combined in both land area and population, with the worst features of both.

I ask that you remember this unanimous consent when I rise before you all again in January. I ask that you remember the sacrifices of the men and women that continue to volunteer to wear the uniform. I ask you to pray, and speak loudly for peace, and to bring our troops home from places they shouldn’t be, and out of harm’s way. And finally, I ask you to remember Lance Corporal Norman “Wally” Anderson III, the man that saved the lives of his squadmates 20 years ago. Thank you.

Interview

Panel – Defend the Guard At Liberty Forum

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Testimony

Testimony – HB104 Defend the Guard

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Thank you Mr. Chair, members of the committee. For the record, I’m Tom Mannion, representing Hillsborough 1 – Pelham. I’m also a United States Marine Corps Infantry combat veteran that deployed twice to Iraq. It was my experiences there that motivated me to learn about US foreign policy, and got me interested in politics. When I first heard about this bill last term, it was entirely within that wheelhouse, and I’m happy to bring it before this committee this term.

HB104, known as the Defend the Guard Act, will prevent the New Hampshire National Guard from being deployed to a combat zone without a formal declaration of war issued by Congress pursuant to Article I, Section 8 of the United States Constitution. I believe this premise is one just about all of us can all agree with, so I’ll focus on attacking the fiscal note.

Firstly, it mentions Federal funding may be put at “risk.” Which is intentionally non-committal language, and after a term here in Concord, I’ve heard in many other committees with regards to health mandates, education policy, vehicle inspections, you name it. Whenever the legislature files a bill the executive doesn’t like, they always like to roll out the ol’ “federal money” defense to try and stop it. Congress writes the checks, and no congressperson is going to commit political suicide by defunding a state guard unit, especially with Senator Shaheen on the committee. Both Congressmen Gossar of AZ and Massie of KY have affirmed that no member of Congress will defund any state guard when asked about this bill. I’ll be closing with more on this, but bear with me.

Secondly, the fiscal note mentions what is known as the Montgomery Amendment of 10 USC 12301 (f) which states “The consent of a Governor described in subsections (b) and (d) may not be withheld … because of any objection to the location, purpose, type, or schedule of such active duty.”   We are not objecting on any of those grounds, we are objecting on the Constitutionality of the deployment. If the purpose of the Montgomery amendment was to completely remove Governor consent, then subsections (b) and (d) would have been amended to remove the consent requirement entirely. Would anyone here argue that Governor Newsom could withhold consent on the grounds that his state is in crisis?

Next, the fiscal note reads “[Title] 32 USC §108 states “If, within a time fixed by the President, a State fails to comply with a requirement of this title, or a regulation prescribed under this title, the National Guard of that State is barred, in whole or in part, as the President may prescribe, from receiving money or any other aid, benefit, or privilege authorized by law.”   We are not prohibiting any Title 32 activation. The section says “under this title” twice, meaning specifically Title 32 activation. Title 10 has no such provision.

Now – AUMFs. Authorizations for Use of Military Force are the very mechanism we are challenging with this legislation. Congress has ceded its Constitutional authority over war declarations to the Executive Branch, without a Constitutional Amendment to do so. As such, the President has been granted powers our founders warned against when they specifically vested the power to declare war with Congress. The fiscal note correctly points out that we have not formally declared war since 1941. Opponents will say “we need the freedom to act quickly!” We, as New Hampshire, have no say in what that President can do with active duty military forces, who will be first to fight. We are simply interceding between the President and our Guardsmen, requiring him to first go to Congress for a formal declaration of war before he can take our sons and daughters, our grandchildren, and our neighbors into that fight.

I want to add that the specific citing of the 2001 AUMF as justification for our military misadventures is particularly absurd. The war in Syria that we helped instigate and have been supporting for a decade, has resulted in the overthrow of Bashar al Assad, and the installing of Abu Mohammed al-Jolani as de facto leader. This man was a member of Al’Qaida in Iraq, the insurgency that came to the country to shoot at guys like me. He later folded into ISIS and then back out into various factions of al-Qaeda in Syria, and until a few weeks ago, had a $10M bounty from the US on his head for his terrorist activities. National Guardsmen have been attacked because of this conflict. In 2023, the Lousianna Guard came under rocket attacks in Northeastern Syria while defending oil fields, and last year Tower 22 in Joran, right over the borders of Iraq and Syria, came under drone attack that resulted in 3 Army Reservists from GA being killed, along with 41 National Guardsmen being wounded from AZ, CA, KY, and NY. And, it is my understanding through the Lance Corporal underground, that the NH National Guard had returned home from that base only weeks prior to the attack. It could have easily been our guys coming home in boxes.

In closing, the most important development has occurred since we passed Defend the Guard out of the House last year: the nomination of Pete Hegseth for Secretary of Defense. A few days after we took that bipartisan vote, Hegseth said this on Fox and Friends:

“New Hampshire is simply pointing out that it’s supposed to be Congress that declares war. It has become an executive branch function, and as a result, unless Congress declares war, New Hampshire doesn’t have to send troops for foreign wars. To me it makes a lot of sense… I love this idea.” It’s my understanding he has since intensified his support for the bill, so the funding fears are more unfounded than ever before, when the guy in charge of the DoD supports this bill.

And with that, I’m open to any questions.

Campaign

Election Results 2024

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Thank you, people of Pelham, for sending myself and the rest of our slate to Concord for the next term!

With a strong majority in the House, Senate, and Ayotte winning the corner office, we have much more stable ground to push forward with tax cuts, education freedom, lower spending, reducing energy costs by abandoning wasteful subsidies that saddle ratepayers with unnecessary fees, and hopefully push through Defend the Guard!