Delegates grumble at inability to vote on Syria

“Residents of the District of Columbia have spent the last decade liberating and securing the vote for the citizens of Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya,” she said. “They went to war without a vote, and came home without a vote, some of them causalities of war who now rest at Arlington Cemetery.”

{mosads}Del. Gregoria Sablan (D-MP) of the Northern Mariana Islands also complained that he won’t get a vote.

“The Northern Marianas will not have a vote in any resolution approving military action,” he said on his website. “Yet our men and women in the military could be put in harm’s way by a decision to use force in Syria.”

Sablan said he would be carefully looking at information about whether the United States should strike Syria.

Rep. Pedro Pierluisi (D-PR) of Puerto Rico also said he was undecided, and used the issue to remind his constituents that he does not get a vote in Congress.

“Because I represent a territory and not a state, I will not be able to vote on this resolution,” he said. “Men and women from Puerto Rico would participate in any military action against Syria and yet their only elected leader in Congress will not be able to cast a vote for or against such action.”

While these members said they worry about putting troops in harm’s way, Secretary of State John Kerry stressed repeatedly this week that he does not see a military strike against Syria as a war “in the classical sense,” given that the administration does not envision putting troops into Syria.

One delegate, Madeleine Bordallo (D-Guam), said this week that she supports a strike against Syria, and did not complain about her inability to vote.

“If Syria’s actions go unanswered the consequences and impact on American power across the world would be significant and detrimental,” she said. “I believe that the authorization can allow the president to seek a limited strike that would inhibit Assad regime’s ability to use chemical weapons against his own people.”