[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 98 (Thursday, June 18, 2015)]
[House]
[Pages H4537-H4538]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
ISIS CRISIS
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Newhouse). Under the Speaker's announced
policy of January 6, 2015, the Chair recognizes the gentleman from
Oklahoma (Mr. Russell) for 30 minutes.
Mr. RUSSELL. Mr. Speaker, in the last couple of weeks, America has
asked what is our strategy to defeat ISIS and what is the President's
plan to prevent the spread of barbarism in Syria and Iraq?
For all of our advancement in self-governance, the rule of law, and a
betterment of people's lives, the world stands in shock at beheadings,
immolations, crucifixions, sexual enslavement, and human suffering as a
way of governance could exist on earth today.
As the world has watched in horror, it has also looked to America.
Where America leads, nations stand shoulder to shoulder; where America
is absent, tyranny takes its chances and rears its ugly head--but who
would have thought barbarity would emerge?
Since last year, the President has been unable to articulate his
strategy to aid our ally in Iraq to combat ISIS. As a combat veteran of
Iraq that has had to watch my American and Iraqi friends die, that has
had to handle the flesh and blood of battle, that has had to do
terrible things to destroy enemies, that has had to watch the good
people of Iraq suffer in absence of effective government, this is
deeply personal.
It is personal because I have lived among the Sunni Arab. I have
celebrated his victories, his wedding, his birthdays, and his
accomplishments. I have mourned as close Iraqi friends have died to
acts of terror and mourned when Iraq's educated, intelligent, and free
people have been expunged.
The President's refusal to negotiate a status of forces agreement and
decision to abandon Iraq in 2012 is largely responsible and aided ISIS'
path to destruction in that country.
We soldiers and servicemembers who have sacrificed so much in Iraq
weep. We defeated Saddam's army, toppled the Ba'athist government,
captured and brought a world tyrant to justice, fought an insurgency,
and stood shoulder to shoulder with disenfranchised Sunnis and Kurds to
restore control to Iraq's Government. We turned the country around with
a military pause.
The President used that pause for abandonment and political
expediency; where we sacrificed, he quit. I speak for so many of the
Iraq veterans when I say: Mr. President, you have hurt us deeply. You
have torn a hole within us. We are at a loss to see the state of Iraq
today.
Now, as we ask what can be done, we see a strategy offered by this
administration. I heard it yesterday in the House Armed Services
Committee when Secretary of Defense Carter and Chairman of the Joint
Chiefs Dempsey attempted to articulate it. I left more confused than
when I entered.
The President is offering a plan without vision or conviction.
Indeed, Secretary Carter could not even name it, calling it the so-
called nine-line strategy. So-called? Do we not even have enough
conviction to call the strategy some name? Is it our strategy or not?
Are we so unsure of it that we do not even know what to call it? Then
we were informed of the ``lily pad strategy.'' I suppose that is the
one that makes us look like a bunch of toads.
The nine lines, if we decide to actually call it that, this strategy,
when taken together, is mostly passive and defensive. In my 21 years of
military infantry service, I have never seen enemies defeated by
defense.
While passive measures are important, they are only complementary.
The President is looking for nations in the Middle East to lead. Middle
Eastern countries are looking to the United States for leadership. We
cannot approach this problem like pushing a strand of wet spaghetti.
Grab it by the front, and it will go where you want it to go.
If Iraq and Syria were a crime-ridden neighborhood, this nine-line
strategy would be like relying on neighborhood watches to physically
fight criminals and restore leadership of the town. The mayor and
police would then tell them, Well, if you clean up your neighborhood,
then we will come and provide the protection that you require--if only
life worked that way.
The military can provide pauses, but we cannot provide an Iraqi
collapse when the President pulls out all the protection necessary to
sustain a nascent government. If the United States is not committed
with a diplomatic, economic, and informational solution, all the
heroics exerted by our men and women in uniform to provide a window
will be squandered once again if we abandon our gains.
Secretary Carter and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Dempsey spoke of
trying to find people willing to fight in Iraq. There are plenty of
them. The problem is they are Sunni Arabs and Kurds. They do not wish
to live under ISIS; yet we will not organize them into a Sunni-Arab and
Sunni-Kurd federation that would actually stand a chance of success and
would be a deadly blow to the objectives of ISIS.
They want to govern themselves because Baghdad cannot include them.
They do not wish to live under ISIS' barbarity, and we should embrace
them.
In the interim, what can be done that is not passive? How about some
of this? Cripple Raqqa. This town, it is clear, is the center of ISIS
power. The President's Cabinet says: We are worried about collateral
damage and civilian casualties.
News flash, the most humane thing we can do to end the suffering of
hundreds of thousands of people is cripple what ISIS draws its strength
from; destroy their infrastructure, hammer the electricity capacity of
that city, destroy the bridges on their roads of ingress and egress,
take away the oil refining installations that they possess and use to
fund themselves with millions of dollars of illegal cash.
We have the ability to rebuild those later, but ISIS would be
diminished deeply by their loss. The most humane thing we can do to
protect civilians is defeat the barbarians, causing their
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suffering. That is true humanity. If the United States leads, others
will stand shoulder to shoulder. Mr. President, we need you to lead.
We hear talk about countermessaging. Well, here is something every
American can help with. News stations, stop putting ISIS recruiting
videos as B-roll on your newscasts. Replace it with crosshairs and
explosions of their defeat, or show the world their acts of barbarity,
instead, for the B-roll. Stop using their images and their propaganda
for furthering American newscasts. Americans, write your local news
stations and tell them to stop it.
Iran, here is the cold reality and its impact on ISIS and Middle East
unrest. Lifting sanctions on Iran will introduce tens of billions of
dollars into these war-torn nations and will destabilize the entire
region. Mr. President, do not lift the sanctions on Iran. They must
show good action before we show good will.
Finally, we must go back to the drawing board on this so-called
strategy of halfheartedness. Using American warriors should mean
backing them with the full weight and might of this Republic.
Mr. President, do you not realize that our enemies hear you loud and
clear when you say you will not sign the Defense Authorization?
Secretary Carter, do you not realize that we are still negotiating it
between both Houses of Congress? Why do you say you support a veto when
we are still in the process of its negotiation? By such actions, one
thing is certainly clear: nothing is too good for the troops, and
nothing is what they will get.
Instead, lead, achieve, get an ISIS strategy worthy of this mighty
Republic, sign the Defense Authorization, and let's get back to our
constitutional requirement to provide for our Nation's defense.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to address their
remarks to the Chair and not to a perceived viewing audience.
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