American politicians have a superhuman ability of falling for pro-war propaganda, no matter how sloppy it is. Even otherwise solid politicians have a tendency of being susceptible to media disinformation
Thomas Massie is an exception to this rule however. On April 6, 2022, the House passed legislation that would instruct President Joe Biden to draw up a report on the government’s efforts to gather and review evidence connected to alleged war crimes and other atrocities carried out during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The legislation in question, the Ukraine Invasion War Crimes Deterrence and Accountability Act, was passed in an overwhelmingly bipartisan fashion in the US House by a vote of 418-7. All of the individuals who voted against this legislation were Republicans.
A spokesperson for Wyoming Liz Cheney claimed that the congresswoman accidentally voted against the bill and has plans of informing the House clerk that she meant to vote yea.
Arizona Congressman Andy Biggs, Ohio Congressman Warren Davidson, Arizona Congressman Paul Gosar, Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, Kentucky Congressman Thomas Massie, and Pennsylvania Congressman Scott Perry voted against the legislation.
“Yesterday I took a vote on a bill that would have allowed us to catalog and investigate war crimes in the Ukraine. I support that 100 percent, 100 percent. We should be doing that. On the other hand, we should not be giving our information over to the International Criminal Court, and this bill indicated that’s where it was going to go,” Bigg stated.
“I do not support affiliating ourselves with the multilateral institutionalist court, the International Criminal Court. That’s why I voted no here,” he added.
The congressman did concede that Russia has “probably committed some pretty serious, hostile crimes against humanity.”
Greene informed The Hill in a statement on April 7 that she opposed the bill due to how it would give authority and information to the International Joint Commission (IJC) and ICC. She said that she would not vote for legislation that promotes “globalism.”
“The bill would hand over authority and our intelligence to the ICJ and ICC – international courts that could put our military on trial. I will not vote for globalism and the slow slide to become a one world government. I will only vote to protect America, our military, and our borders,” Greene remarked.
Massie tweeted on April 7 that he voted against the bill due to it featuring language that could lay the groundwork for “spurious war crimes charges” being used against American military personnel for mistakes committed during military operations.
“Some of my colleagues and I voted against this resolution in part because it contains language that could set the table for bringing spurious war crimes charges against American service members for mistakes made during military operations in theaters such as Afghanistan,” Massie declared.
April 6’s vote was another occasion where Biggs, Greene, and Massie opposed some of the hawkish legislation against Russia that the DC uniparty has been pushing. In March, this liberty conservative trio voted against legislation to scrap normal trade relations with Russia,
In the present Russo-Ukrainian conflict, Massie has become a leader for realism and restraint on foreign affairs. Years ago, Massie would have been all by his lonesome in voting against hawkish bills. Now, he has been able to cobble together a small, yet gradually growing coalition of legislators to oppose the warfare state.
If we want to see an end to the perpetual wars that DC wages, a liberty conservative coalition of non-interventionism needs to be formed.
