Continuing Appropriations Resolution, 2015
Floor Speech
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. Speaker, today, I join many of my colleagues from both sides of the aisle in support of giving the President the initial authority needed to confront ISIS and Syria.
I am actually surprised and disheartened by the opposition that some here in this Chamber have towards the amendment. To be clear, I have been as vocal a critic of this administration's lack of strategy in Syria as any other person. But that does not excuse us from what, I believe, is the right thing to do, which is to give the Commander in Chief the tools necessary to confront this evil.
I don't remember many of my colleagues from this body stepping forward a year ago, or even a few months ago, urging the President to do more in Syria. In fact, at the beginning of this year, I called for bombing ISIS targets as they moved into Fallujah and Iraq. By many I was called a warmonger or somebody eager to start another war in Iraq.
It is easy to come up with any excuse not to support an amendment. Some say it doesn't go far enough. I have heard from a lot of people here that say it doesn't go far enough. Some people say that it goes too far, it is too much. It doesn't include an authorization of military force, it doesn't include an overarching strategy for ISIS or Syria.
I reject those calls for a perfect strategy from a perfect President for a perfect outcome in Syria. That is simply not possible given the circumstances we now face, due to our previous inaction.
Mr. Speaker, to those who believe that the Assad regime is a partner in the fight against ISIS, I would remind them this regime has slaughtered nearly 200,000 of its own people. In fact, in Iraq, when we were fighting al Qaeda in Iraq, the Assad regime gave AQI safe haven in Syria to fight American forces. And look no further than Hezbollah--one of the greatest enemies of the West and one of the greatest enemies of Israel is strongly supported and enabled by the Assad regime. The Assad regime created the ISIS problem, gave them safe passage through regime-controlled territory and, ultimately, attacked only Free Syrian Army targets until the West looked over, and now they look like the savior of the West by attacking only ISIS. Let's not get sucked into that argument.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
I support this amendment, not because it is part of a larger strategy in Syria that we would like to see from this administration but because it is a first step in addressing ISIS in Syria.
I ask my colleagues to support this first step that many have been calling for to train the FSA before it is too late. What would our enemies and allies think if we rejected the President's authority to do this?
I urge support of this amendment.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source