[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 200 (Wednesday, December 19, 2018)]
[House]
[Pages H10330-H10332]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
SOMEONE PLEASE WAKE ME UP
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of
January 3, 2017, the Chair recognizes the gentleman from Virginia (Mr.
Garrett) for 30 minutes.
Mr. GARRETT. Mr. Speaker, someone please wake me up. I think I am
having a nightmare.
What if I told you that, in the Middle East now, there is a place
where Christians, Muslims, Arabs, Kurds, Assyrians, Yazidis--women and
men--all sit together at the same table, as the result of the
beginnings of a democratic process where tolerance and pluralism is a
core value, and where we have seen safety, security, and prosperity
emerge from the ashes one of the most horrific conflicts of the modern
age. What if I told you that.
What if I told you that a foreign state actor spent $10 million a
month, to our reckoning, to influence thought in Washington, D.C.,
alone, to tell lies about this fledgling, tolerant democracy in the
Middle East.
What if I told you that the very Iranian regime that took the lives
of American women and men on the battlefield in Iraq was celebrating
right now along with Vladimir Putin and Bashar al-Assad and Turkey's
neo-Ottoman fascist Erdogan.
I can tell you all those things because they are true.
Someone please wake me up. I think I am having a nightmare.
I just spent my Thanksgiving and 2 weeks of my life--a lot of money
and a lot of time--away from my family to meet with brave people
spanning multiple ethnicities who, like the First Continental Congress,
have the recognition of exactly no foreign governments as a legitimate
emerging government; who are different from you and me only by virtue
of the happenstance of fate that they would be born somewhere as
opposed to another place; who have quite literally shed the lifeblood
of their children on battlefields that most Americans have never heard
of, from Deir ez-Zor, Manbij, Jarablus; people who fought, bled, and
died in homes that their families had inhabited in the Kabul River
valley, the Jazeera province; and who were the tip of President Trump's
spear in rooting out the combat components of a radical, warped,
hateful ideology embodied by Daesh or ISIS.
And today, without warning, we said good luck.
The Syrian Democratic Council is not a Kurdish experiment in north
and eastern Syria. It is an experiment that was largely started by
Kurds, yes, but it is an experiment that includes men and women from
across the ethnic and religious diversity of the region.
What we read about in any publication that comes out of Turkey, which
has about the worst press freedom on the planet, is how the PKK has
been engaged in terrorist activity in Turkey, and anyone affiliated
with the PKK by virtue of the accident of their birth as a Kurd is
somehow a terrorist. Folks, this is not true.
I met with everyone, from chief executives down to city councils.
When you go to Deir ez-Zor, where the bulk of the population is Arab,
the city council is Arab. And when you go to Manbij, the leadership is
Arab. And when you go to Jazeera, the leadership is Kurdish and
Christian, and it is male and female.
This Chamber that we stand in, in this venerated body, exists not
only because of the blood and sweat and tears of innumerable Americans
not only in the Revolution but throughout our history, but also because
foreigners were willing to stand up in support of an idea that was
freedom and self-determination: Lafayette, Pulaski, Kosciuszko, von
Steuben--German, Polish, French.
Yet again, we betray those who have shed their blood to advance
American policy.
Look, don't make the commitment to begin with. It is one thing to
learn that the United States has equivocated on its policy and people
died. It is another thing to learn that the United States is
equivocating on its policy and people with whom you have broken bread
are about to die.
I told them when I was there: I am here on my own time. I do not
formulate American policy. I happen to be a Member of Congress, but, by
God, I will stand up and be heard so that you might have the right that
was bequeathed to you, not by a political administration anywhere, but
by God, to live free of fear, to sleep soundly in your ancestral home,
to worship or not worship as you choose.
Ain Issa is the name of the town where, by happenstance, the Syrian
Democratic Council has put some functions of its government. Ain Issa
translates to English as the ``Eyes of Christ.'' You can't make this
up.
In my entire life, I have been proud of the 1 in 26 luck that I had
to slip from the womb the son of Lois and Tom Garrett in the
Commonwealth of Virginia, born in Georgia, in the greatest country on
the face of the planet.
But how many times must we muck up the endgame: the bloodletting in
Cambodia and Laos, the purges in Iraq after 1991, the betrayal of the
Kurds in 1985, the ignoring of vindictive revenge killings in 2004, the
encouragement and then withdrawal in 2017.
Ironically, Mr. Speaker, the Russians are far more loyal friends than
the Americans are. It is beyond me.
Somebody wake me up. I am having a nightmare.
To say that ISIS is defeated and that was our sole mission is, at the
very least, to exhibit a complete lack of understanding of what is
going on, on the ground.
I stood on the front lines near Jarablus by a building that was shot
up that day by the Free Syrian Army, who we funded, at a military post
manned by people of various ethnicities. And the Free Syrian Army did
this while the Turkish military watched.
Iranians seek to build a land bridge to the Mediterranean. Hezbollah
is a wholly owned subsidiary of Iran--it functions in Israel--and is
the only terrorist organization I know of that has taken human life on
every single inhabited continent--Oceania, Australia, Asia, Europe,
Africa, South America, North America. And we are just opening up the
door.
Eighty-seven people were killed in Deir ez-Zor province within 24
hours on either side of the time I visited. This wasn't a long time
ago. This was Thanksgiving.
This fight is long from over. Frankly, if I am an ISIS recruiter, the
idea that, ``Look, the Americans are leaving,'' will only strengthen
their position.
So let me make this metaphor, Mr. Speaker. We have a patient. That
patient is Syria. It is stricken with four cancers. There is the regime
in Russia; there is Turkey; there is Iran; and there is ISIS. We have
just eradicated the bulk of one cancer, dropped the scalpel, left the
surgery room, and declared that the patient is healed.
[[Page H10331]]
Candidly, the people in north and eastern Syria would be far better
off if we had never come to help, because the brave women and men who
have stood up to lead a democratic movement have identified themselves
for extermination.
I sat down in Manbij with the military council, with an individual,
it is my understanding, who was attacked with an IED the next day, and
we have declared victory. This was 2 weeks, 3 weeks ago.
So let me be clear, and let me counter some propaganda. When the only
people celebrating this decision are Turkey, Iran, and Russia, it might
be a bad decision. When you hear that the Syrian Democratic Council and
the forces in north and eastern Syria are Kurds, that defies the
reality on the ground, the reality that I saw, and the people with whom
I spoke.
The definition of insanity, Mr. Speaker, is doing the same thing
again and again and expecting a different result. Let me tell you what
I know, so that a month from now, I can say, ``See, I told you so,''
and maybe I will have that because 4-plus-or-minus million people in
north and eastern Syria won't even have so much as their homes.
{time} 2130
Turkey is going into Manbij. They have been telling us that for a
month. They said: We have got to get the Kurds out of Manbij. Guess
what? The Kurds aren't controlling Manbij. The Syrian Democratic
Forces, which includes some Kurds, are in Manbij, but they are out.
This is like post-World War II Japan or Germany saying: You need to
get the African-American soldiers out of Berlin. It is racist on its
face, ridiculous, and denies the reality on the ground, and apparently,
nobody in the decision-making scheme has bothered to figure out what
the actual truth is.
So the Turks are going into Manbij. Now, what will that look like?
Well, we know what happened in Afrin and al-Bab. They fly the Turkish
flag over the courthouses. They have changed the street signs to honor
Ottoman sultans. I can show you a video, Mr. Speaker, of a paramilitary
police force raising their right hands in a Hitleresque salute
shouting: ``Long live Erdogan,'' in Turkish. This is on Syrian soil.
The children are educated in a different language. And the hospital
in Afrin, which used to have a sign outside in Kurdish and Arabic, now
has a sign outside in Turkish. In Jarabulus, the commanders with whom
we spoke said when Turkey came in and said they rooted out ISIS, we
looked through the field glasses the next day and lo and behold, the
same people that were there the day before in ISIS uniforms were there
in uniforms sanctioned by Turkey.
Oh, by the way, I just learned that we are going to sell $3.5 billion
worth of Patriot missile batteries to Turkey to go along with the F-35
fighters that I guess they can use to bomb the sovereign nation of Iraq
like they did last week in U.S. F-16s, perhaps this time more
effectively. This is insanity.
And I am not anti-this administration. I am not anti-this President.
I am anti-foolish policy that will cost human lives that will be
perpetuated and exacerbated by foolish foreign policy which preceded
it.
I am not suggesting we attack anybody. I am suggesting we don't turn
and walk away. People who depended upon us and took us at our word are
going to die, and we are worried about what we get for Christmas.
I mean, I don't have words. So, Mr. Speaker, I don't know what more I
can do. But I will not stop.
With great power comes great responsibility. Contrary to what some
people might say, we live in a great Nation. Our policy sucks. And to
walk away from commitments that we made because it is politically
convenient is beyond shameful. This matters. Iran is giddy. Erdogan is
giddy. The Russians have punked us, to use the jargon of the day. And
the band played on.
I don't know. Somebody wake me up. I am having a nightmare. I mean, I
represent the citizens of the Fifth District of Virginia, and I love
them. I love my district. But I value human life, and I believe that if
we make commitments, we should keep them. And if human life is lost
because we can't keep our word, we need to take a long, hard look at
exactly who we are.
Mr. Speaker, with that, I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr.
Gohmert).
Mr. GOHMERT. Mr. Speaker, I just want to applaud my friend's efforts
on behalf of people who have counted on us. The 2 weeks he spent over
there have been invaluable to the people who were counting on us. Some
of that time was spent with a dear friend named Dave Eubanks.
Mr. GARRETT. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Wisconsin
(Mr. Grothman).
Mr. GROTHMAN. Mr. Speaker, I will just take a minute of your time to
follow up on what Congressman Garrett just said. It seems to me, in my
lifetime--I am not an expert on foreign affairs--there are good things
the United States has done, and bad things. But the worst things are,
when people who are counting on us, people who we set up and relied on
us, we decide to leave them to whatever will happen.
I think, in particular, a much bigger thing is when we stopped
funding people in Vietnam. Obviously, during the Obama administration
leaving Iraq, we left all sorts of people who were our friends, and
created a huge vacuum. I am just very afraid today, and I would
encourage President Trump to reconsider the decision to withdraw what
troops we do have in the Syrian area because we have a lot of allies
who felt they could count on the United States, whom I am afraid now
will be left to whatever other forces in the region--who are not
friendly to Western values--left to whatever they want to do with them.
And I hope that is being taken into account right now.
Mr. GARRETT. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Maine (Mr.
Poliquin).
Mr. POLIQUIN. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Garrett for the opportunity to
address the House.
Mr. Speaker, it is the responsibility of the United States House of
Representatives, this body, and also the United States Senate, to
protect our families. There is nothing more important as dictated by
the United States Constitution, than to protect our families.
Mr. Speaker, we have one heck of a problem on our southwest border
with Mexico: in California, New Mexico, and Arizona. We have a very
dangerous and very unhealthy situation just on the other side of the
fence, in particular now, with Mexico. I am asking the President
tonight, if he is watching, to please, publicly ask the House
Republicans, while we are still in the majority, please ask us to pass
a real strong border security and immigration bill.
We did this several months ago. Goodlatte-McCaul One, as they called
it, got 193 votes. It has everything that the President wanted, his
four pillars and a heck of a lot more. Why in the world do we want to
negotiate for peanuts when we can have the whole ball of wax?
Goodlatte-McCaul One, has $25 billion, Mr. Trump, $25 billion for
border security, including the wall where necessary; $25 billion--not
$5 billion--$25 billion over 5 years. It ends the visa lottery. It
reins in chain migration, and it reforms the asylum process.
It is more than the President wants. This will happen, Mr. Speaker,
only if the President of the United States publicly asks House
Republicans to pass this bill or something really close to it.
The votes are there. Over the past 2 weeks, I have talked to every
single member of the Republican Conference, 235 Members of the House. I
have spoken to every single one, except for about five or six. We have
the votes to do this. It is not too late, but it is getting late.
After the Democrats take control of this body, they have told us what
they will bring or try to bring to the President's desk. It will not be
what the President wants. It will not be what America wants.
It will be some form of open border, sanctuary cities, and amnesty.
There is no better deal. There is no longer an opportunity to hold out
for a better deal. We have the votes to pass Goodlatte-McCaul One or
something real close to it.
But I ask the President, he must publicly ask the House to do it.
That will give enough of our Members the support they need to vote for
it, and it will cause leadership to act.
Again, why would we want to negotiate for peanuts when we can get the
[[Page H10332]]
whole ball of wax? I appreciate and I thank Mr. Garrett very much for
yielding to me.
Mr. GARRETT. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr.
Gohmert).
Mr. GOHMERT. Mr. Speaker, how much time is remaining?
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Virginia has 8\1/2\
minutes remaining.
Mr. GOHMERT. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my friend, Tom Garrett, for
arranging this Special Order. He is on his way out, and he cares so
deeply about this country and this country's allies that he would put
his life at risk and go and spend time with another American hero.
In fact, Dave Eubanks is a hero, and he is someone who has dedicated
his life as a Christian, as an American, trying to make the lives of
others in the world better, and I thank my friend, Congressman Garrett,
for spending that time with him. We shouldn't turn our back on our
friends.
Sometimes it seems that Mr. Erdogan is not our friend, but we
certainly have had a tremendous amount of friendship and lives lost in
the Kurdish community, standing up for us, with us, in defense of
freedom.
That is important. And I also want to address the issue of the wall
on our southern border. It appears clear, since we lost over 70,000
American lives last year--that is more than all of the precious
American lives we lost in the whole time of the Vietnam war--and we
lost those in 1 year from drugs.
Most of those drugs coming across our southern border in the form of
opiates and other hallucinogens, including fentanyl, are coming from
Mexico. So if you want to see another 70,000 Americans die again next
year, you don't want a wall. Let's not build a wall.
If you would like to have illegal aliens continue to pour into this
country in the hopes that they will be able to vote illegally, you
don't want a wall, even though you supported one in the past. You don't
want one now because you may get those votes if you can stop a wall
from being built.
If you want Mexico to remain as a country with so much incredible
potential whose people are suffering and keep the people of Central
America suffering at the hands of the drug cartels, you don't want a
wall. Because if we build a wall where we need it, we build a fence
where we need it, we totally secure the border, what happens? The
money, by the tens of billions, pouring into the drug cartels south of
the border dries up.
That means the corruption in Mexico and south of there dries up. That
means Mexico, with its incredible national resources--the natural
resources of that Nation are incredible. Its location, actually, for
commerce is even better than the United States.
{time} 2145
It sits between two continents. It sits between two oceans. Its
potential is unlimited. But what limits it is the corruption from the
drug cartels that America is continuing to fund.
So do you want that to continue?
Yeah, you don't want a wall.
Our elected leaders in the House and the Senate--the Republican
elected leaders in the House and Senate--were not in favor of a wall or
total border security in the last election in 2016. It was unfortunate.
The President knew and heard the voice of the American people, and he
echoed it. But that is why back in September of this year at our
conference--and I know it wasn't popular and people didn't like me
saying it--but I had to make clear, it was clear to me, if we don't get
money for a wall, then the people, the voters that put President Trump
in the White House will not come out in the same numbers, and we will
not likely remain in the majority. I said it 2 weeks in a row, and the
response was to cancel that last week of votes before the election.
We didn't fund the wall. We said: Oh, let's wait until December.
My comment then was: This will be my 14th December in Congress, and I
have lived through 13 where we were told we will fight in December.
We have yet to fight in December.
Now is the time. I know people want to go home. I want to go home.
But this is our chance to protect America for our future. Let's help
the President keep our promise. Let's help him keep our promise.
I know the Speaker and the majority leader were not big on this 2
years ago, but most of America heard commercials from our majority
leaders saying: Help Kevin McCarthy and President Trump build the wall.
Well, now we need Americans to help remind our Republican leaders to
help our President build the wall like we said. If that doesn't happen,
I don't think the Senate can count on being back in the majority. They
won't be. It is that serious.
I have heard that the feeling in the Senate among Republicans now is,
let's not do reconciliation so we only have to pass the money for a
wall with 51 votes. We don't want to do that.
If you don't do that, get money passed for the wall, then you are not
coming back in the majority. Maybe you would enjoy the minority. Get
used to it. That is where you are heading in 2 years.
It doesn't have to be that way. We can still have the White House in
2020. We can still have a majority in the Senate in 2020. We can get
the majority back in the House in 2020. But if we drop the ball on this
biggest campaign promise, then we are not going to have the majority in
either the House or the White House.
And that, to quote my friend from Houston, my fellow former judge,
that is just the way it is.
Mr. GARRETT. Mr. Speaker, very quickly back to Syria, if anyone tells
you that this is Turks versus Kurds, they should tell Sheikh Bandar,
the leader of thousands of Arabs who fight alongside the Kurds and the
SDF. If anyone tells you it is Turks versus Kurds, they should tell
that to Commander Johannes, the leader of thousands of Christians who
fight alongside Arabs and Kurds.
This is not a Kurdish experiment; it is a human experiment. It is an
experiment in democracy. We made a commitment. We should keep our word.
Mr. Speaker, if anyone is watching, I hope they will contact their
political leaders and ask them to stop the sale of Patriot missiles and
F-35s to the aggressive Turks. I hope they will know the Iranian
military is on the ground in Syria right now everywhere in the form of
the IRGC, except the place that we are about to abandon.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the men and women across the world who stand up
for the basic idea that all people are endowed by their creator with
certain inalienable rights, and among these are life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
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