As approximately 3,200 Wisconsin Army National Guard soldiers ship off to Iraq Tuesday, a combination of Wisconsin veterans, citizens and legislators will be working to prevent unlawful deployments.
State Rep. Spencer Black, D-Madison, is working to create new legislation that will require the governor to review federalization orders for the National Guard.
If the governor determines they are not proper orders, he or she would take the appropriate legal action to contest the federalization of the state's National Guard,"" Black said.
According to Joy First, the Wisconsin state coordinator for the ""Bring the Guard Home! It's the Law"" campaign, the governor is the commander in chief of the state's National Guard. Anytime the guard is called up to be federalized, he would be required to examine the orders before signing any deployment demands.
First explained that because the United States did not discover any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, the mission has expired and there is no legal basis for sending troops to Iraq.
""I'm just very sad to see these young men and women go off to a war I think is immoral and illegal just to kill and to be killed,"" First said.
According to the public affairs officer of the Wisconsin Department of Military Affairs, eight soldiers from the state of Wisconsin have died while deployed on Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Although Black does not expect his legislation to pass anytime soon, he will be present at the deployment ceremony to honor the members of the guard.
""I think everybody in Wisconsin ... their hearts are with our National Guard as they go overseas,"" he said. ""In terms of the Iraq mission, like most Americans, I question the wisdom of that mission.
