[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 163 (Wednesday, October 16, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Page S5810]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                            Turkey and Syria

  Madam President, as I reflect on the critical role our military plays 
in the world, I want to take a moment to talk about what is happening 
in Syria right now and the U.S. response.
  This is a complex situation. Given its proximity to several fronts of 
conflict and unrest, Turkey is facing immense pressure to address 
security concerns and is straining to support a huge number of 
refugees.
  Turkey also has an understandable interest in rooting out terrorists 
within its country and stemming any factions that support them, but the 
Kurdish militias the United States has backed in Syria are not the same 
as the group Turkey has struggled to contain in its own country.
  Turkey's decision to attack Kurdish forces in Syria will do nothing 
but exacerbate the humanitarian crisis on the border. It will also 
strengthen the Assad regime and foster greater influence in the region 
by Russia and Iran. Most alarmingly, Turkey's incursion will force the 
Kurds to pull resources that would otherwise be committed to keeping 
ISIS fighters imprisoned. It is deeply concerning that the withdrawal 
of U.S. forces has set this into motion.
  As you know, a major reason for ISIS's rise was President Obama's 
decision to withdraw U.S. forces from Iraq on a timetable that he 
announced to our enemies and before the security situation was stable. 
The departure of U.S. forces created a vacuum in the region that ISIS 
quickly stepped in to fill. It is important that we don't allow history 
to repeat itself.
  U.S. and Kurdish forces have been working together against ISIS for 
years now and have succeeded in drastically shrinking ISIS's territory 
and weakening this terrorist organization. Thanks to their work, in 
many respects ISIS can be said to be on the run, but this achievement 
could quickly be undone by a U.S. withdrawal from the country.
  I hope we will be able to have some fruitful discussions here in 
Washington this week about the need to maintain our strategic gains 
against ISIS and avoid creating a vacuum for our enemies to fill, and I 
hope our NATO ally Turkey is listening closely.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.