Horowitz: A plan for GOP governors to protect soldiers from unjust jab mandates

One of the most heartbreaking consequences of the immoral, illegal, illogical, and inhuman mandate to get the experimental — and now, ineffective — COVID shots, is the destruction of the careers of our service members. So many people who gave their lives to the military are being dishonorably discharged for not getting a shot that doesn't work, many of them don't even need, and is quite risky — especially for the young males at risk for myocarditis. What if our nation's governors were able to assert their power to at least save the careers of those in the National Guard, augment it with a state militia, and then create a landing place for their respective residents in the other service branches to continue their careers?

Oklahoma state Rep. Jay W. Steagall USAFR Major (Retired) spent 19 years in the Oklahoma National Guard and now chairs the House committee on Veterans & Military Affairs. In an interview with TheBlaze, Rep. Steagall was irate about news of some of his fellow brothers in the Oklahoma Guard who are now being sent home because of this immoral order. Some have been sent home the minute they filed for a religious exemption.

"How does this happen in a state like Oklahoma when we have a Republican governor who is commander-in-chief of the Guard?" asked the conservative state legislator who also owns a gun store.

Steagall has a plan to deal with this problem. The Constitution and our early history are quite clear that the state militias aka the National Guard are by default under the orders of the governor of that state. Obviously, the Constitution did provide for the president to assume command and federalize the guard units in case of insurrection or other similar emergencies. Federal law prescribes the federal service conditions under 10 U.S.C. §246 (known as "Title 10" deployment). So long as the president has not explicitly declared a Title 10 emergency, the chain of command in a state's guard units are controlled exclusively by the governor through "Title 32."

As such, according to Steagall, there is no reason why a single red state should be subjected to the vaccine mandate in the National Guard.

"Every governor can issue an order to the Adjutant General of the State indicating that the governor is simply retaining all disciplinary authority within the Governor's office in regard to the fed's 'mandatory' administration of an FDA-approved COVID-19 vaccine," advised the Oklahoma representative, who also chairs the states' rights committee. "Withholding disciplinary authority from subordinates by their superiors is an action that military commanders are familiar with, and is oftentimes a necessary action to take by superiors to maintain order and discipline amongst their subordinates."

In other words, absent a Title 10 declaration, there is no reason why red state guardsmen should be dismissed pursuant to Department of Defense orders. They should not be taking orders from the president, but from the governors. Every governor should send out an order to the state's two-star adjunct general who commands the National Guard and prohibit any disciplinary actions taken on behalf of Pfizer and Moderna, who evidently now control our national military.

Obviously, some will wonder if the president will then respond by federalizing the entire National Guard under Title 10. He might choose to do that, but that is a fight worth having, especially when half the governors are opposing it. The president would have to defend declaring an emergency and owning all of the troops in states that are already very unfavorable to him for a shot that has already waned. This would bring much needed dialogue to issues of natural immunity, better therapeutics than the vaccine, the side effects, waning efficacy, and the Nuremberg Code. It would finally force that inflection point that we've been avoiding for 18 months of this nightmare.

Moreover, let's not forget that states have the right to form their own state guards in addition to the National Guard. For example, Texas has the Texas State Guard, along with the Texas Army National Guard and Texas Air National Guard. It's about time other states follow suit anyway and create a parallel state guard that is not subject to federal control. This can be a perfect landing place for the persecuted soldiers within the states who are forced to leave the other federal military branches that are completely under the president's control. Why let that talent go to waste? States absolutely have the right to a militia. Heck, the liberals are the ones who suggest the Second Amendment is primarily about arming a state military. So, isn't it time to call their bluff and call one into service to deal with all of the mayhem from the border crisis that Biden has foisted upon this nation anyway?

Governors should also be advised that the DOD order itself, which was promulgated a day after the FDA issued a license to the Comirnaty shot, is flawed in its construction. The Aug. 24 memorandum of the Secretary of Defense states, "Mandatory vaccination against COVID-19 will only use COVID-19 vaccines that receive full licensure from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), in accordance with FDA-approved labeling and guidance." The problem is that the only shot that has officially received full licensure (License No. 2229) is the Comirnaty shot, the conceptual vaccine from Pfizer's German partner, BioNTech. This vaccine won't even be available for a few years.

Pfizer's version of the shot, on the other hand – the only one commercially available – received an extension of the emergency use authorization, not a licensing number. As the FDA states in footnote 9 of the letter to Pfizer, "In the August 23, 2021 revision, FDA clarified that, subsequent to the FDA approval of COMIRNATY (COVID19 Vaccine, mRNA) for the prevention of COVID-19 for individuals 16 years of age and older, this EUA would remain in place for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for the previously-authorized indication and uses."

Thus, service members are having their careers destroyed over shots that have not even been fully approved, as prescribed by the original DOD memo.

This issue with the National Guard speaks to the broader impotence of the GOP governors in fighting back across the board. With so many talented and patriotic people losing their jobs within all branches of the federal government, these state governors should be finding ways to invite these people into other positions. Take the fired health care workers and use the profligate sums of COVID funding to pay for them to work in outpatient COVID clinics that actually save, rather than take, the lives of those infected with the virus. Have fired federal law enforcement work in state law enforcement. Have fired federal military work in state military units.

If the federal government is sending us the message that they want a divorce from red America, perhaps it might be a blessing in disguise in the long term if we actually seize the moment and utilize the trashed treasures of patriots losing their jobs to rebuild red America upon our original founding values.