(I sent the following message to four members of Congress:  Pramila Jayapal, Ro Khanna, Rashida Tlarb, and Barbara Lee.)

I am a loyal Democrat and I have financially supported many Democratic presidential and congressional candidates through the years.   

However, I was startled and disappointed when I read of your criticism of the Biden administration for ordering strikes against the Houthis in Yemen who have been firing rockets at commercial shipping and our naval vessels in the Red Sea and attacking them with drones.  First of all our military does not need congressional permission, or even presidential authorization to return fire when fired upon. They are always allowed to defend themselves.  The only reason why they have not in this particular situation is because they were able to knock the drones and missiles out of the sky with defensive armaments before they caused harm.  

The administration and the rest of the countries of the world have shown great restraint in this situation.   How long do you think it would take for the local police to take out someone who is continually shooting at cars on the interstate? Do you think they should first have to get the permission mayor or the city council before acting?  What has been happening in the Red Sea is an analogous situation.  Terrorist criminals have been breaking international law and endangering lives and property.  In addition, those terrorist have also been endangering our economy and that of the rest of the world.  

I didn’t hear you object when President Biden ordered retaliatory strikes against Iranian backed terrorists when they attacked our military bases in the Middle East. You obviously didn’t think that he needed your permission to order those attacks.  How in the heck is this any different? 

In addition, the Houthis are not the representative government in Yemen. They are essentially just another rebel Iranian terrorist group intent in overthrowing the current government of their country.  Yes, the President must get the permission of Congress before declaring war on another country, but in this case no other country is involved, only terrorist.

And if you believe that violence always begets violence, your naïveté astounds me.  There are times, and this is one of them, when the only way to prevent violence is by force.  If we destroy the weapons the Houthis have been using to attack our ships and commercial vessels, they will be powerless to cause additional trouble. The violence will end.

You were totally off base in you comments about this situation, but I am equally concerned about your timing. What we don’t need is congressional members of our own party criticizing President Biden when the stakes in this election so high, higher than I remember in my lifetime.   You better hope nobody runs against you in your next primary, because if I hear more disloyalty coming out of your mouth, I promise you I will fund your primary opponent, and I can assure you I have the means to do so.  I will also ask my friends and more than 3,000 Facebook friends to do so as well.

Cajun (Rick Guilbeau)