Dan DeWalt, a frequent contributor to these pages and one of the founders of this newspaper, writes that if he didn’t love his country, he “wouldn’t spend so much time trying to get it to live up to its purported principles.”
SOUTH NEWFANE-The worst has happened. Donald Trump is starting a war, and will most likely get a very bad one.
The Vermont National Guard has been sent to the Middle East. Guardsmen will be put in harm’s way and risk being involved in what could easily become a major conflagration.
And for what? Iran poses no threat to us. Iran’s nuclear program has been severely damaged by U.S. bombing. Iran itself is unstable, and only by extreme state violence has the country been able to quell fomenting unrest among its own population.
But who is now benefitting from military action against Iran?
Israel.
Israel is pulling out all the stops to fully annex not only Gaza, but the West Bank as well, continuing their genocide, determined to drive the Palestinian people into becoming a mere memory of what once was, as they consolidate their stranglehold of a greater Israel, running from the river to the sea.
Once again, Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is working his mysterious magic on Donald Trump, having our president do Israel’s bidding while offering nothing in return except heartbreak, destruction, and dishonor.
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The Vermont National Guard is supposed to be under the leadership of Gov. Phil Scott. It’s supposed to be a state entity to be controlled by the federal government only in times of war or when bona fide exigencies of national security demand it.
But has the governor raised an outcry? Has he gone toe to toe with Trump and done his best to prevent brave Vermonters from being used as pawns in a shameful political game?
He knows how to exercise his duty; he did so by declining to send Vermonters to Washington, D.C. last year during one of Trump’s first abuses of the Guard.
He saved them from the ignominy of picking up trash on the National Mall, but he doesn’t lift a finger or say a word to prevent them from being sent home in caskets fighting in a Middle East conflict that doesn’t even have a fig leaf of congressional cover for its legitimacy.
And what are our representatives in D.C. doing? Making their standard statements without any significant follow-up action.
“These are actions of war, and my very strong view is if the president wants to do that, he has to go to Congress to get an authorization,” said U.S. Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vermont.
“[We] received zero notice, information, or clarity about the location, duration, and purpose of this deployment. This is not normal, nor should it be tolerated,” said U.S. Rep. Becca Balint, D-Vermont.
“We must make sure the United States does not get involved in yet another war and destabilize another region,” independent U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders told WCAX.
These statements were reported in December of 2025. In reaction to the recent news that F-35s are being deployed, we get this from Welch: “Both Bernie and I are adamantly opposed to that executive overreach. It’s extremely dangerous.”
Is this really the best we can do? Are we really going to acquiesce to Trump’s warmongering as he risks the lives of those in the Guard?
Has the Congress — which is the only branch of government that can declare war and which has at its disposal the War Powers Resolution — really been reduced to its members being bystanders who simply state their concern as they accept that they have given up their power and do nothing about it?
And will Vermonters allow our representatives to wallow in fecklessness as an unstable president wields power in a way that endangers not just us, but the entire planet?
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This last question is no longer rhetorical. It is clearly up to us to act now.
Our biggest power is a national strike. There is unyielding resistance by Americans to stop working, even for short amounts of time. But as much as it may cost us for the duration of a strike or strikes, that cost will be much less than what we will pay to live under violence-enforced fascism, which is our new reality.
Please take a deep look inside of yourself and see if you can believe in our power, if you have the wherewithal to advocate and work to convince others of the efficacy of a strike(s) strategy.
There will be strike calls in the coming months. We must be ready to answer the call, and exercise our power before we no longer have it.
This Voices Viewpoint was submitted to The Commons.
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