[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 38 (Monday, March 5, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1334-S1335]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            SYRIAN CIVIL WAR

  Mr. CASEY. Mr. President, I rise today as Syria is about to enter its 
eighth year of conflict. We have witnessed 7 years of displacement and 
violence, 7 years of war crimes, and 7 years of Bashar al-Assad's 
illegitimate grasp on power. To say that it is past time for Assad to 
go or that it is past time for the conflict to be resolved dramatically 
underestimates the horrible suffering and destruction the people of 
Syria have experienced. In these 7 years, almost 500,000 Syrians have 
been killed and more than 12 million have been displaced from their 
homes.
  This conflict has disproportionately affected children, as all 
conflicts do. According to Save the Children, inside Syria, 7.5 million 
children have lived their whole lives knowing nothing but war. 
Emotional and psychological stress has manifested itself physically; 
Syrian children now face an increase in heart disease, diabetes, and 
depression. These children are growing up in refugee camps, with no end 
in sight. This means the loss of their childhood and

[[Page S1335]]

of educational opportunities. I don't exaggerate when I say that 
because of this war, an entire generation of Syrians will be both 
displaced and disaffected in an already volatile region. Ignoring these 
children ensures decades of instability to come.
  In Eastern Ghouta this past week, we saw the most recent example of 
the brutality of the Assad regime, aided and abetted by Russia and 
Iran. While only just now making headlines, Eastern Ghouta has been 
held under siege by the Syrian Government since 2013. This 
neighborhood, which had supposedly been designated as a deescalation 
zone, has been bombarded by Syrian Government forces armed with Russian 
weapons. In just a few days, 500 civilians have been killed, and that 
number is growing.
  Years after the international community reached a consensus that 
Assad had lost his legitimacy as the leader of Syria, he not only 
remains in power but is more secure than ever. The United States has 
not only failed to exert moral leadership in the face of Syrian 
suffering but has also failed to show strategic leadership in the face 
of a tangible threat to U.S. national security.
  I have long called on both the Obama and Trump administrations, 
warning that U.S. interests were not being represented in Syrian 
negotiations, but this has never been more clearly illustrated than in 
November of this past year, November of 2017, when a picture circulated 
of Presidents Ruhani, Putin, and Erdogan shaking hands in Russia after 
a round of negotiations to determine a potential resolution of the 
Syrian conflict.
  I have to ask, is it now U.S. policy to let these three dictate 
policy in the Middle East--Ruhani, Putin, and Erdogan? The United 
States was not there, nor were our European allies. The United States 
is failing our own interests by ceding leadership in Syria to Iran and 
Russia, whose national security interests often directly contradict our 
own.
  What do these bullying regimes want from Syria?
  Let's start with Iran. Iran sees Syria as an investment in its 
political infrastructure and its campaign for regional hegemony. It is 
their ``land bridge'' from Tehran to Beirut, a weapons pipeline, a 
training camp for Hezbollah. It is a practice ground for a future war 
with Israel.
  What about the Russians? The Russian Government, led by Mr. Putin, 
has made clear that they believe all Syrian territory must return to 
the Assad regime and to the Assad regime's control before political 
reforms can be considered. Putin seeks a solution that shows that he is 
the arbiter of events in the Middle East. Lately, foreign leaders--
including Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel, President Ruhani, and 
King Salman of Saudi Arabia--fly to Moscow instead of Washington. They 
see a Russia that seeks to write the rules of international order and 
an America that sits back, too enmeshed in our own political strife to 
lead.
  This is not the America that I know and that most Americans know. The 
America I know does not believe that where you are born should dictate 
where you live or die or if you spend your childhood in a refugee camp. 
The America I know does not stand by while enemy nations threaten to 
expand their spheres of influence. The America I know sees the 
complexity of our own foreign involvements, understanding, for 
instance, that ISIS cannot be fully defeated without considering the 
context of the Syrian civil war. The America I know supports its 
allies, like Israel, that share a chaotic border with a nation at war 
with itself.

  In 1963, President John F. Kennedy spoke at the Fort Worth, TX, 
Chamber of Commerce on the challenges posed by the Soviet regime.
  He said:

       This country, which desires only to be free, which desires 
     to be secure, which desired to live at peace for 18 years 
     under three different administrations, has borne more than 
     its share of the burden, has stood watch for more than its 
     number of years. I don't think we are fatigued or tired. We 
     would like to live as we once lived. But history will not 
     permit it. . . . The balance of power is still on the side of 
     freedom. We are still the keystone in the arch of freedom, 
     and I think we will continue to do as we have done in our 
     past, our duty.

  So said President Kennedy. He spoke to the paradox of our country 
then and now, what we continue to face. If we are to remain the 
keystone in the arch of freedom, we cannot become fatigued by the 
responsibility to fight tyranny.
  These are the very issues that should receive public debate as part 
of the congressional consideration of a new authorization for the use 
of military force, known by the acronym AUMF. We undermine our own 
credibility when we continue to send our men and women into conflicts 
that Congress has not authorized. Secretary Tillerson, our Secretary of 
State, has indicated that he sees a need for a long-term U.S. military 
presence in Syria; yet many of us believe that there is no purely 
military solution to this conflict. Where is the strategy? we ask. I 
would like to see the administration put forward a plan that 
encompasses all components of this conflict--military, political, and 
humanitarian.
  When we ask our men and women in uniform to put their lives on the 
line to protect our homeland and fight terrorism, we need to be willing 
to back them up by doing our jobs here in Washington. Just consider 
Pennsylvania. Pennsylvanians have made a substantial sacrifice in the 
past 17 years of war as 288 of our brave servicemembers have been 
killed in action in those 17 years and as almost 2,000 have been 
wounded in action in Afghanistan and Iraq.
  We owe it to these men and women to have a robust, bipartisan debate 
about this strategy and a vote on an AUMF. We should also vote on 
legislation to cut off financing for ISIS or any other terrorist 
organization in the world. I have a bipartisan bill, the Stop 
Terrorists Operational Resources and Money Act, the so-called STORM 
Act, with Senator Isakson. I have a bill, as well, with Senator Rubio, 
the Preventing Destabilization of Iraq and Syria Act, to promote 
humanitarian aid and sanction the Russian and Iranian actors who are 
destabilizing this region--all of the components of a comprehensive 
strategy.
  Let's have a serious debate on this critical national security issue. 
We are not always faced with situations in which our moral obligation 
and our strategic priorities lead to the same conclusion, but this is 
one of those rare moments.
  May it be said of us years from now, just as President Kennedy said, 
that we do our duty to continue to be the keystone in the arch of 
freedom, including helping the Syrian people, especially her children, 
be free of Assad's brutality and bombing.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader.

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