[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 201 (Thursday, December 20, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7976-S7978]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                 SYRIA

  Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. President, yesterday, Christmas came early to the 
Kremlin. First, we have President Trump's announcement to pull our 
troops out of Syria. Second, the administration wants to delist three 
companies controlled by Oleg Deripaska, though, I am not sure he has 
adequately relinquished control of those companies. Third, the 
administration has done nothing to respond to Russian aggression in the 
Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait. This is a trifecta for Vladimir Putin 
and sends a global message that creates real concerns. Christmas has 
indeed come early to Moscow.
  The Trump administration's withdrawal from Syria lacks any strategy, 
is foolhardy, and it puts U.S. security in the Middle East--including 
our ally, the State of Israel--at great peril. This is not simply an 
error. It is dangerous. It is dangerous.
  Let me be clear. Withdrawal from Syria without success is failure. 
American credibility will take a horrible hit

[[Page S7977]]

if the President moves forward with this decision.
  As a country, we have said that Assad, who has butchered his people, 
cannot stay in power. Assad is likely to stay in power into the 
foreseeable future. Second, we have said we cannot leave Syria because 
we have strategic interests. By leaving, and doing so precipitously, 
the President is willing to leave these strategic interests in the 
hands of Iran and Russia, and Moscow will be given a solid foothold in 
the Middle East--something it has aspired to for some time, and now it 
will happen. It will have developed bases there, and it will have 
unfettered determination as to what to do.
  Third, this move will strengthen Iran's ability to attack Israel.
  We are entering a very dangerous time, as it is increasingly clear to 
all--including many of my Senate Republican colleagues and especially 
our international allies and adversaries--that this President is 
completely incapable of addressing our security challenges. Only in 
Donald Trump's parallel alternate universe has ISIS been defeated. 
There is no one who would suggest that is reality at this point. We 
have made gains, and we have had successes, but they have not been 
defeated.
  His erratic decision making indeed poses a great threat to our 
security interests.
  Trump tweeted that Russia is ``not happy'' about his decision to 
withdraw our forces from Syria. Well, I guess he missed President 
Putin's end-of-the-year press conference where, in his own words, he 
showed this morning that Russia is indeed thrilled with this abdication 
of U.S. leadership.
  I worry that we are sending the wrong global message, as well, if 
this plan is executed. The Kurds have been the most significant 
fighting force on our behalf and in our interest in Syria. They have 
been our partners. By pulling out, we are abandoning them. Turkey will 
come in and seek to destroy them. They will be hit not only by Turkey, 
they will be hit by Assad, and they will be hit by others.
  Imagine the message that sends to other potential partners around the 
world. For those to whom we say ``Fight with us, fight for us, instead 
of sending our sons and daughters,'' the message is ``Once the United 
States is done using you, we will abandon you.''
  We can't afford that message. In any other place in the world where 
we want people to fight with us or for us and carry the burden of being 
on the frontlines so that our sons and daughters are not in harm's way, 
they are going to look at this moment and say: No way. They will say: 
The United States will abandon us. They will say: The United States 
will leave us on the battlefield to die.
  As someone who has voted against the deployment of U.S. troops 
elsewhere, I don't take these issues lightly. I want our sons and 
daughters to come home as soon as possible. But by withdrawing these 
forces now with no strategy, the United States is placing our security 
and that of our allies at grave risk, and the sacrifices that have been 
made by our troops will be lost.
  Russia has entered into this war in Syria with an unholy marriage 
with Iran--yes, to prop up Assad, but also, for Iran, it was to gain a 
tactical vantage point on Israel's northern border. Our withdrawal 
leaves a vacuum that Iran will fill, putting Israel at even greater 
risk.
  To believe that we can outsource our allies' interest to Russia and 
that Russia will tell Iran to leave now, in Syria, is ridiculous. Iran 
is not a simple agent of Russia in this regard. Iran has shed its own 
blood and national treasure in pursuit of its interests, both to prop 
up Assad and to have a vantage point on the northern border with 
Israel--another place to strike at Israel. It is not going to give that 
up simply because Putin says to leave. Anyone who believes that has a 
clear misunderstanding of the realities of this relationship.
  Completely withdrawing the United States from Syria at this moment 
with no strategy in place signals to the region and to the world that 
we are willing to cede our interests to Putin, to Iran, and to others 
who will exploit this leadership vacuum.
  In addition, President Trump has been silent in the face of egregious 
behavior from Saudi Arabia, a behavior that this Chamber spoke to in a 
unanimous way.
  He has no strategy for securing our interests around the Middle East 
or the world. It is all too clear who is winning.
  The Kremlin attacked Ukranian ships and captured Ukranian sailors 
nearly a month ago. Those vessels and sailors remain in Russian hands. 
They are hostages--hostages--who were taken at the high sea in 
international waters in violation of international law. And what has 
the administration done--canceled a meeting with President Putin?
  It canceled a meeting; that is it. It hasn't rolled out new sanctions 
on those responsible for the attack. It has not increased U.S. and NATO 
presence in the Black Sea in order to preserve international maritime 
passage for all. It has not announced new security assistance for the 
Ukrainians.
  One month has passed, and President Putin has felt zero pressure--
zero pressure--on any of these actions or to release these sailors. 
There is zero pressure to ease the tensions in the Kerch Strait and 
zero pressure to negotiate an end to the war in the Donbass or to 
return Crimea to the Ukraine.
  In fact, Putin seems quite at ease. His yearly press conference 
earlier today was a victory lap. He is already prodding President 
Trump, welcoming the evacuation from Syria, and calling for President 
Trump to stand by his campaign commitment to also withdraw from 
Afghanistan. He is doing it purposely to see if he can elicit the same 
reaction he has elicited in Syria.

  This retreat has left Vladimir Putin with a glow of victory. He is 
winning in Syria; he is winning in Turkey; he is winning in the 
Ukraine; and Trump wants to take our players off the field. And this 
misguided withdrawal from Syria drives that point home.
  Putin's control of Trump came into sharp focus yesterday, and I urge 
our Republican colleagues to see this for what it is. The small price 
that Putin paid to interfere in our national elections has paid off in 
Syria; it has paid off in Ukraine; and the American people are paying 
the ultimate price.
  This is a dangerous time, and our security lies in the hands of a 
President who, I will respectfully say, is clearly not up to the task.
  I have called on this administration and the last to develop and 
present and execute a clear and comprehensive strategy to promote our 
interests in Syria. This means a comprehensive strategy to counter Iran 
and its proxy networks, which, from Hezbollah to the Houthis, have 
grown only stronger as this administration continues to bungle its way 
through one foreign policy crisis to the next.
  The President has the opportunity to reverse course and avoid a 
spectacular failure. He should listen to his military and national 
security advisers, none of which--none of which--ultimately recommended 
this course of action. He should listen to our allies, none of which 
have recommended this course of action.
  He should invest in alliances and international institutions that 
multilateralize and strengthen our reach across the globe.
  He should listen to this bipartisan chorus from Congress. There have 
been voices on both sides of the aisle here who have said: Change 
course. This is a grave mistake. He has an opportunity to avoid a grave 
mistake.
  I will repeat what I said earlier today at a press conference with 
Senator Graham and Senator Reed: Withdrawal from Syria without success 
is failure. Simply withdrawing is not a success. Withdrawing without 
honoring the sacrifices that have been made by our troops there, 
without honoring the sacrifices that have been made by our allies 
there, like the Kurds, without recognizing the enormous civilian 
casualties that will take place in the aftermath, without recognizing 
that we will leave a void for other particularly nefarious entities to 
ultimately fill that void, without recognizing that we create a risk 
for our ally, the State of Israel and its northern border, without 
recognizing that at the end of the day, our strategic interests will be 
totally lost in this regard, is indeed a great failure.
  I hope the President takes this opportunity to change course, to 
listen to his national security and military advisers and to the chorus 
of bipartisan

[[Page S7978]]

voices in the Senate, including those of us who are engaged in national 
security questions, whether it is I, as the senior Democrat on the 
Senate Foreign Relations Committee, or Senator Reed, as the senior 
Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, or Senator Graham, who sits 
on Armed Services and is the chair of the Subcommittee on Foreign 
Operations of the Appropriations Committee. These are bipartisan 
voices, among others, who are making it very clear that this is a grave 
mistake. We have a chance not to make that grave mistake and the 
consequences that flow from it.
  I yield the floor.
  Mr. MENENDEZ. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. PERDUE. I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum 
call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Cassidy). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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