Rep. Jones Threatens Impeachment If Obama By-Passes Congress On Arming Syrian Rebels And An American Is Killed

June 28, 2013 • 9:03AM

Two Democratic Congressmen, two Republican Congressmen, and a Republican Senator gave a Capitol Hill press conference Thursday afternoon, about their resolution against the Obama Administration's announced intention to provide weapons or military support to rebel forces in Syria. Although not further identified in the media, this appears to be H.R. 2494, filed on June 25 by Rep. Chris Gibson (R-N.Y.), titled"To restrict funds related to escalating United States military involvement in Syria." Its text is not yet available on Thomas, the Library of Congress website.

The bill's six co-sponsors include Walter Jones (R-N.C.), Rick Nolan (D-Minn.), and Peter Welch (D-Vt.), who attended the press conference. The other co-sponsors are Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), Scott DesJarlais (R-Tenn.), and Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.).

As sparsely reported in news media, the most vehement speaker at the press conference was Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.), who was reported by AP to have said, "If Congress [sic] sends one troop, if one of our troops goes to Syria and is killed, I will introduce articles of impeachment against the President."

Fox News reports that Rep. Chris Gibson (R-N.Y.), "who served more than two decades in the Army with multiple tours to Iraq, and deployments to Kosovo and Haiti," said, "If we intervene militarily, we will exacerbate the situation." Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) warned against "Americanizing a civil war." Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said, "I'm opposed to getting involved in the Syrian civil war, I'm opposed to sending arms to the Syrian Islamic rebels, but I'm particularly opposed to doing it with no vote of the people through their representatives."

A report in the Journal-News in New York State, says that Rep. Gibson is a retired Army colonel, and he further said, "We will not ease the concerns or the suffering there," and suggested the United States use economic leverage to oust President Bashar Hafez al-Assad rather than getting "further sucked into a very difficult situation." Rep. Welch is quoted, that those who hope for a negotiated settlement once Assad is ousted are misguided: "There is some unity among the rebels to take out Assad, but as soon as that happens, if that's successful, there is going to be score-settling. We should learn the lesson that we can't micromanage an outcome here."

The Journal-News further reported that "The group urged Congress to at least have a thorough floor debate over Syrian policy." Rep. Nolan pointed out that the fiscal 2014 defense authorization bill recently passed by the House says the Obama administration should consider 'all courses of action' to remove Assad from power, begin operational planning to secure Syria's chemical and biological weapons, and prepare for supplying lethal aid to the rebels. Nolan said, "By anyone's definition, those are all acts of war. Our point is this is not a decision for the president to make and make alone."