Ensuring Tax Exempt Organizations The Right To Appeal Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to talk about the latest example of President Obama's failure to lead in the international arena, to the detriment of our national security and the security of our allies.

Over the weekend, the Iraqi city of Ramadi in Anbar Province--which is about 70 miles from Baghdad--fell to ISIL. Once a hotbed of Al Qaeda activity, Ramadi had been won back and pacified at great costs in 2006 and 2007. That accomplishment was made possible due to the heroic efforts of some great Americans, such as Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, a Texan whom Al Qaeda called ``the Devil of Ramadi'' and whose service was chronicled in the book and the movie ``American Sniper,'' and LTG Sean McFarland, whose soldiers implemented a brilliant counterinsurgency strategy to win over the local population and drive out Al Qaeda in the process.

By the way, we are proud to have General McFarland today serving as commanding general of III Corps at Fort Hood, TX.

ISIL's latest raid and capture of Ramadi is a significant setback for all of us who seek a stable and prosperous Iraq, and it represents this terrorist army's biggest military victory this year.

Reports of the ISIL takeover of Ramadi are staggering. Faced with the oncoming ISIL forces, hundreds of Ramadi police and security officials fled the city, leaving behind American-made military equipment, including as many as 50 vehicles, now in the hands of our enemies. Those who managed to escape reported that many security officials, government workers, and even civilians were quickly killed execution-style.

In response, the Iraqi Government deployed its Shiite paramilitary troops to the province--a move that some experts believe could lead to even more sectarian strife. The Iraqis are looking for support almost anywhere they can get it, and in the vacuum left by President Obama's poor leadership and indecision, Iran is more than happy to fill that vacuum and take up the slack.

It should come as no surprise that on Monday, the day after the fall of Ramadi, Iran's Defense Minister arrived in Baghdad to hold consultations with the Iraqi Ministry of Defense.

Obviously, I am frustrated by the President's lack of leadership and by the Obama administration's failure to put together a strong and cohesive strategy to combat ISIL, but it is more serious than that. It is about what we have squandered in Iraq, what we bought with the blood of Americans and the money that came out of the pockets of American citizens.

Since ISIL began taking large swaths of territory last summer, this administration has taken an approach of paralysis by analysis--in other words, doing nothing. When they do take action, it seems ad hoc and piecemeal and not driven by overarching objectives or any strategy that is apparent to me.

I am not the only one who believes we do not have a strategy in the Middle East. This President's own former Secretary of Defense, Bob Gates, said yesterday: ``We're basically sort of playing this [instability in the Middle East] day to day.'' After affirming his belief that we have enduring interests in the region, Secretary Gates then added: ``But I certainly don't think we have a strategy.'' I could not agree more with him.

Unfortunately, this takeover of Ramadi serves as just the latest example of a President whose policies are altogether rudderless in the Middle East, even as that region is riled with growing instability and grotesque violence. We can trace that to what happened in the area just a few years ago. I alluded to this a moment ago. In 2011, after the President ended negotiations with the Iraqis on a status of forces agreement, the Obama administration proceeded with a misguided plan to pull the plug on American presence in that country. In doing so, he squandered the blood and treasure of Americans who fought to give the people of Iraq a chance.

While it is true that the Iraqis had not agreed to the U.S. conditions to an enduring American presence, including legal immunity for our troops, this administration gave up and failed to expend the political capital necessary to secure a status of forces agreement and to preserve the security gains we had made together with our allies in Iraq. As a result, those security gains made in many areas of Iraq since the height of the violence in 2005 and 2006 have since evaporated.

In 2012, as terrorist groups were flourishing in Syria, the President refused to initiate a program to arm vetted moderate Syrian rebels, disregarding the recommendations made by his most senior advisers, including then-CIA Director David Petraeus, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey, and then-Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta. He rejected the advice from his most senior national security adviser. Instead, the President publicly remarked in January of last year that ISIL was the JV team of terrorist groups. And just a few months ago, President Obama boldly said that ISIL was ``on the defensive.'' Let me repeat that. Just a few months ago, President Obama claimed ISIL was ``on the defensive.'' That is not exactly the case today, nor was it really then. That is not exactly the kind of leadership we need from our Commander in Chief.

By giving our troops a difficult mission to degrade and ultimately destroy ISIL but not providing them with the strategy and the resources they need to do so, the President is essentially making them operate with one more hand tied behind their back. We know we have the most capable military in the world, but we cannot win a fight with our hands tied behind our backs or with these constraints--politically correct constraints--the President wants to make and not commit the resources and the strategy and the focus we need in order to win. So I hope the President will reconsider after this latest dramatic setback in Ramadi. I hope President Obama will provide us with a strategy to degrade and destroy ISIL.

In Ramadi--a major city and capital of Iraq's largest province--we see much more than just a symbolic setback, and I bet Chairman Dempsey wishes he could take those words back--he called it merely symbolic.

We see a dangerous development and a great obstacle to a more stable Iraq and thus a more stable Middle East. But this is what gets to me: We had more than 1,000 brave American troops die in Anbar Province during combat operations since 2003. I do not want to see their lives having been given in vain and squandered. So I hope that this is a wake-up call to the Obama administration and that they will provide the Congress and the American people and our troops a clear path forward to defeat ISIL and to rid the world of this terror army.

Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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