[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 57 (Tuesday, April 10, 2018)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E416]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      REGARDING THE CHEMICAL ATTACKS IN SYRIA AND THE PRESIDENT'S 
                         IRRESPONSIBLE REMARKS

                                  _____
                                 

                        HON. SHEILA JACKSON LEE

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, April 10, 2018

  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to urge the President to 
be more responsive and aware of the heavy consequences that weigh 
behind his comments regarding Syria.
  Last week, the President's reckless comments of suggesting that it 
was time to withdraw from Syria emboldened Bashar al-Assad and his 
regime to launch yet another round of chemical attacks on innocent men, 
women, and children in the city of Douma.
  This attack claimed the lives of at least 85 people, majority of them 
women and children and affected hundreds.
  I extend my deepest condolences to the families and loved ones of the 
victims killed or injured by the horrific and unjustifiable use of 
chemical weapons by the Assad regime against an unarmed civilian 
population.
  The world learned through the painful experience of World War I the 
horror and inhumanity of chemical weapons, which caused unspeakable 
suffering and killed indiscriminately as we saw in the 1980s when 
Saddam Hussein's regime used them in Iraq's war with Iran and later 
against its own people.
  The international community cannot again let such an attack go 
unanswered for to do so will embolden other rogue regimes and 
terrorists.
  The President, as Commander in Chief, is charged with the 
responsibility of deciding when to use military force to protect the 
nation and its interests.
  But he does not bear this weighty burden alone.
  The Constitution wisely provides that it is shared with the Congress, 
the representatives of the American people.
  The decisions we make as a country must be measured and wise as 
countless lives hang in the balance of our actions.

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