While Albany Sleeps, New York’s Soldiers Die and Bleed
October 8, 2008
By Cyd Malone
The Congress shall have the power to provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions. -US Constitution, Article 1 Section 8
(Wyandanch, N.Y.) During the battles along Canada’s Niagara front at the opening of the War of 1812, an American invading army under General van Rensselaer had to fight at severely reduced strength because “most of the New York militiamen refused to cross the river, insisting on their legal right to remain on American soil”, leaving his force instantly down 2,300 men[1]. Shortly following, in a campaign along the upper Niagara River, it was the turn of Pennsylvania’s militiamen to refuse to cross out of American soil.
Later that year, in November, another American invasion force under Revolutionary War hero General Henry Dearborn was repulsed at the Canadian border just north of Plattsburgh, in large part because both the Vermont and New York militiamen “flatly refused” to leave American soil, depriving his army of a great deal of its bayonet strength[2].
As of August’s end, the Iraqi and Afghani campaigns have seen New York’s guard and reserve units suffer 31 killed and 214 wounded.[3] War is always a scourge to the victor as it is to the vanquished, and our losses are made all the harsher because they have been bought about in a manner that violates the very Constitution our patriotic youth swore to uphold upon enlisting.
The question at hand is, “when can the militia be called out”? According to Alexander Hamilton (in the Federalist Papers #29) “in times of insurrection, or invasion”. Iraq and Afghanistan are neither insurrection nor invasion, nor do those long-suffering people fall under the laws of our Union. Our Constitution as she stands today is explicit on this point. To date, it has not been amended, she reads on our subject as she did in 1812.
Since each State in our Union has control over the use of their militia – these days called National Guard and Reserve units – it follows that if there is no state of insurrection or foreign invasion, the federal politicians have no legal power to call our military into federal command, nor do they have any legal right, at any time, to send them off American soil, as insurrections, invasions, and our laws can apply only on American soil.
Albany’s submission to this breach of law is troubling, as it shows a disregard for the very principle that underlay our structure of government. America is designed to run as a federalist republic to avoid the concentration of power into one specific organizational level.
This concept – the ‘separation of powers” – is so important because power is by far the most dehumanizing, addictive drug known to mankind. It is deadly in any form excepting the smallest of doses, and even then it has driven children to kill their own parents, and vice versa.
As each branch of the federal government is supposed to balance out the other, so each and every United State, all fifty, is a sovereign entity in its own right. America is constructed so that not only the three federal branches balance and check each other, but that each State in our Union also check and balance the federal government, to also jealously guard their power.
Respect for the rule of law is vital; it is what separates us from the terrorists — lawlessness is the hallmark of terrorism, the terrorist knows no law. Even should every politician in Albany support our guard and reserve units being in the Middle East, it is besides the point - that the federal government has no legal right to put them there in the first place is the point.
We New Yorkers would never tolerate David Wright to be allowed four strikes in every at bat on his whim, nor Pedro Martinez to be allowed two strikes against a batter whenever he desires – we have a respect for the laws that govern how you play baseball. Yet we show no respect for the laws that govern something vastly more important – when our State’s military may be stripped from us by Washington D.C., when our loved ones are to be put in daily contact with death.
By ordering New York’s military to the Middle East, the federal level has clearly overstepped her bounds; they have taken what belongs to us – our armed forces, here for our protection. The combination of a well-regulated militia and a well-armed populace is our shield against violent invasion and domestic threat. And it’s currently overseas getting shot to pieces.
Many of our state’s politicians have allowed their sense of patriotism to overwhelm their love of the law, our most important shield against humanity’s insatiable lust for power. The law is meant to stand as a levee against the impulses of the Bushes, Clintons, Spitzers, and Cheneys among us, and it is specific as to when the federal politicians can call away New York’s military, and those specific requirements do not hold in the case of Iraq and Afghanistan.
During the War of 1812, New York’s sons who had pledged themselves to defend her liberty refused to leave American soil. Our political leaders in Albany should take time to recall the courage, patriotism, and love of the Constitution that went into their decision – and emulate it.
Cyd Malone writes from Wyandanch and may be contacted at peloponny1 (at) aol.com
[1] (The War of 1812, Army Historical Series, Chapter Six, Sec. 129.)
[2] (The War of 1812, Army Historical Series, Chapter Six, Sec. 130.)
[3] http://siadapp.dmdc.osd.mil/personnel/CASUALTY/state-guard.pdf
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