[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 75 (Thursday, May 12, 2016)]
[House]
[Page H2286]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  ATROCITIES IN SYRIA AND AMERICA'S MISSION TO BE AN EXEMPLAR OF SELF-
                               GOVERNANCE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Illinois (Mr. Kinzinger) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. KINZINGER of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, Bill Clinton once said, when 
asked what his greatest regret was of his time in office, that his 
greatest regret was the failure to act on the genocide in Rwanda.
  Mr. Speaker, today, over a half million Syrians have been killed by a 
brutal dictator, Bashar al-Assad. What I think is important to note is 
that a lot of times when we talk about something happening somewhere 
that is not here, we think of it as something that doesn't affect us 
because these people may look different, maybe they speak a different 
language, maybe they worship a different God, and, frankly, it is 
oceans away.
  Mr. Speaker, right here is just a picture of a number of Syrian 
children. These are children who are having their lives torn up by war. 
It is children, in fact, just like these that in past years were gassed 
by Bashar al-Assad.
  I want you to imagine that, gassing. As you drown, knowing that you 
are taking among your last breaths; as your mom and dad sit there and 
are affected by the same chemical weapons and are watching their 
children die. It is tragic. That was done indiscriminately by Bashar 
al-Assad.
  But that is nothing new for him. Bashar al-Assad learned from the 
greatest man he knew--his father--who leveled cities and killed tens of 
thousands who dared disobey his will, the will of one man.
  So in 2011, these generations of repressed Syrians who do not like to 
live under dictatorships--humanity does not like to be oppressed and 
live under dictatorship--these millions of citizens rose up and began 
to peacefully protest their dictator. How did the dictator respond? Did 
he talk about reforms that could be done to government? No. He 
responded with tanks, with armies, and with murder. He responded with 
chemical weapons.
  The United States and other countries were rightfully concerned with 
what was going on, and a red line was placed by our President. That red 
line was not adhered to. Bashar al-Assad got away with using chemical 
weapons at no cost and no penalty. So this brutal civil war continues.
  Children and women are among the chief targets, by the way, of the 
regime because they believe it inflicts more pain per capita on the 
population than killing a man. So they target them specifically. They 
continue to die.
  The West thought they had negotiated--and the President thought he 
had negotiated--a cease-fire; but yet, in the end of April, a Doctors 
Without Borders hospital was bombed. Was it the one we hear so much 
about in Afghanistan, the mistaken bombing of a Doctors Without Borders 
hospital that was tragically done by the American military? No, not 
that one, as tragic as that is. But it was the regime of Bashar al-
Assad that killed over 60 people in a Doctors Without Borders hospital, 
despite a cease-fire that is occurring. Now we are back at the table 
hoping to make this one cease-fire actually stick.
  Mr. Speaker, unfortunately, in this campaign season people have been 
seductively lured into the idea that America's responsibility now is 
just to come home and lick our wounds. I believe that America has a 
mission that is a God-inspired mission. It is a mission to be an 
example to billions of people of self-governance and to be an example 
of human rights and dignity. But it is also in our self-interest to be 
involved.
  What has the brutal dictator Bashar al-Assad done besides tragically 
kill almost a half million people, as if that is not bad enough? Bashar 
al-Assad has created an area for ISIS to spawn and breed. ISIS wouldn't 
be in existence today if Syria was a stable country potentially under 
democratic rule because the people wouldn't turn to it. Bashar al-Assad 
created and incubates ISIS--fact. Bashar al-Assad brutalizes his 
people, and you can not fix the situation in Syria with Bashar al-Assad 
remaining in existence.
  It may not be popular to say. People may say: Do you want to 
intervene in another Middle Eastern war? No, I don't want to. But I 
will tell you, Mr. Speaker, America has a mission; and if we forget 
that mission, if we wake up and if the President some day in an 
interview says, ``My greatest regret was inaction in Syria,'' that is 
on all of us, too.
  These children want to be teachers, they want to be police officers, 
and they want to have kids of their own some day. Don't forget their 
voices.

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