GOP Rep. threatens to impeach Obama if American troops are killed in Syria

Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.) on Thursday threatened to impeach
President Obama if any U.S. troops are killed in Syria.

{mosads}“If one of our troops goes to Syria and is killed, I will
introduce articles of impeachment against the president,” Jones said.

“No president, Democrat or Republican, should have the
authority to bypass the Constitution and the will of the American people and
bomb a foreign country because he does not like the leader of the country,” he
said.

Jones’s threat came at a press conference where a bipartisan
group of libertarian-leaning Republicans and liberal Democrats — including Sen.
Rand Paul (R-Ky.) — pushed for legislation
to bar Obama from arming the Syrian rebels without congressional approval.

The bills come after the White House said last month that it
would provide military assistance to the rebels because it concluded that
Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces had used chemical weapons.

Jones and the other lawmakers frequently cited the 2011 U.S.
intervention in Libya in their concerns with potential military action in
Syria. In Libya, the Obama administration took part in the NATO military
campaign that ousted Moammar Gadhafi from power without approval from Congress.

They stressed their bill was as much about forcing
Congress to approve any military intervention as it was about expressing
opposition to U.S. intervention.

But the other lawmakers on the bill at the press conference
— which included Reps. Chris Gibson (R-N.Y.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.) and Rick
Nolan (D-Minn.) — weren’t so eager to talk impeachment.

When asked if they agreed with Jones, Gibson said he was
most concerned about forcing Congress to have a real debate on what to do in
Syria. Welch said that Obama had shown admirable restraint thus far in Syria.
Paul ducked out of the press conference at that point and didn’t give his
opinion.

Jones has previously raised the issue of impeachment over
Syria, introducing a sense of Congress resolution last year that said the use
of military force without authorization from Congress was an impeachable
offense.

The two-year civil war in Syria, where more than 100,000
have been killed, has split Congress in a manner that doesn’t fall along party
lines.

Conservative and libertarian Republicans have joined liberal
Democrats to express opposition to U.S. intervention. In addition to the
legislation from Paul and the House lawmakers, Homeland Security Committee Chairman
Michael McCaul (R-Texas) and Rep. Tom Rooney (R-Fla.) also introduced a bill this week
requiring congressional approval before any U.S. military aid is sent to the rebels.

Lawmakers opposed to intervention in Syria say U.S.
involvement will only exacerbate the conflict, and they warn U.S. weapons
will wind up in the hands of Islamic militants fighting alongside the secular
opposition.

“There’s a certain irony to this,” Paul said Thursday. “Now
we will be arming forces who are actually associated and fighting on the same
side as al Qaeda.”

Hawkish Republicans and Democrats, however, have criticized
the Obama administration for not doing more to intervene. A group of senators
including Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and Robert Menendez
(D-N.J.) have called on Obama to create a no-fly zone in Syria.

They say the U.S. will not put U.S. troops in Syria,
but can use a no-fly zone to give the rebels a safe area in the country to
organize and gain the upper hand in the conflict. They also dispute the notion
that the U.S. can’t provide weapons to vetted opposition groups rather than Islamic
militants.

It’s unlikely that the bill from Gibson, Jones, Welch and
Nolan will get a vote in the House. The Defense authorization bill that passed
in the House earlier this month urged the president to “consider all courses
of action to remove President Bashar Assad from power.”

Gibson introduced an amendment to remove the language, but
it was defeated 123-301.