Continuing Appropriations Resolution, 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. BOUSTANY. Mr. Speaker, I want to put this in strategic context. We are seeing a once-in-a-century upheaval in the Middle East, and the most virulent manifestation of that is occurring in Syria today with a very complex civil war raging over several years.

On one side you have the brutal Assad regime aligned with Iran and Hezbollah, another terrorist group, and on the other side a panoply of Sunni groups of which the worst, the most barbaric, is ISIL. It is in America's national interest, our national security interest, to defeat and destroy ISIL, period, hands down.

This is going to require American unity, American resolve. And I can tell you, never, never in recent times has American leadership been more in demand. This is the time for us to step up. It will take a lot of work. It is going to take merging the fighting capabilities of the Kurdish Peshmerga with the Iraqi forces; and, yes, it will take the U.S. training and vetting moderate Syrian forces to deal with this.

This is a necessary first step, and that is why I support this amendment. It is necessary. It is not sufficient. Again, we need a broader strategy that is going to involve a coalition. This first step will show that American resolve to friends and foes alike as well as those who are on the sideline. We will demonstrate that and pull this coalition together.

This will help the President have the necessary leverage to do this and put this coalition in place to defeat this threat of ISIL, but also to get to a broader political settlement in the region, because what is going on in Syria, even beyond ISIL, is a national security threat to the United States. That is why this country, all Americans, must speak with a unified voice. A strong vote on this amendment is essential as a first step to putting this in place.

My colleagues, Mr. Speaker, I urge the President--I urge the President--to put all diplomatic efforts into putting together a strong coalition and to ask for very specific deliverables on each of these countries, whether it is Turkey or Qatar or the Saudis. These countries have to step up if we are going to have a successful strategy in the long run.

The President needs leverage. This gives him the first step. I would hope that he will come to the Congress for a broader authorization for the use of military force because I do believe that will give him all the leverage he needs to complete this diplomatic task in putting a coalition together, along with the military strategy with these allies in the region, to defeat the immediate threat of ISIL and to eliminate this major problem we are seeing with a failed state in Syria that has allowed ISIL and some of these other extremist groups to arise.

This is the time for unity. This is the time for American leadership. This is a time that we step up.

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