[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 164 (Thursday, October 17, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5857-S5858]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            TURKEY AND SYRIA

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, on Syria, yesterday, the U.S. military 
carried out airstrikes to destroy what only a few weeks ago had been 
the headquarters of the American campaign to destroy ISIS in Syria. 
Nothing encapsulates the failure of President Trump's decision to stand 
aside for Erdogan more than the fact that we are now bombing our own 
bases rather than allow them to fall into the hands of Assad, Erdogan, 
or Putin.
  If Erdogan, Putin, and Assad are such great allies or no problem, as 
President Trump told us yesterday at the White House, then why do we 
have to bomb our own headquarters after American troops evacuated so it 
doesn't fall into Syrian or Turkish or even Russian hands? That one 
thing encapsulates the absurdity, the awfulness of President Trump's 
lack of policy and erratic, impulsive, and whimsical movements on the 
Syrian front.
  Yesterday the President said this withdrawal was a ``strategic 
move.'' It certainly is not that because this is not the action of a 
military that carried out a deliberate withdrawal. It is the action of 
a military that was given a fly-by-the-seat-of-his-pants decision of 
the President contrary to the recommendations of the commanders on the 
ground.
  Donald Trump has the nerve, the gall, to think he knows more about 
the military than these generals who have served our country for 
decades. It is appalling. How does America put up with this? How do our 
Republican colleagues put up with this? He doesn't consult the 
generals. What a blunder, and it seems to be the result of the 
President's inability to say no to dictators. He seems to like a Putin 
and an Erdogan and even a Kim more than our allies. This is also a 
clear demonstration of the President's fecklessness and recklessness, 
both, or as my colleague Senator Lindsey Graham, and one of the 
President's staunchest allies in Congress, said, ``I fear that this is 
a complete and utter national security disaster in the making.''
  Yesterday afternoon, congressional leaders went to the White House, 
at its request, to meet with the President about the rapid 
disintegration of the situation in northern Syria. Speaker Pelosi and I 
talked about it ahead of time, and we talked about it with Senators 
Reed and Menendez as well. We had a serious purpose: to find out if the 
President actually had a plan to contain ISIS and fix the mess 
precipitated by his decision to green-light Erdogan's military 
incursion into Syria.
  Alarmingly--alarmingly--President Trump had no plan. The greatest 
insult that occurred in that room was not any of the name-calling that 
Trump did. A far greater insult to America, to all of us, was the lack 
of any policy guidance, any policy decisions, any direction from the 
President and his top national security advisers on how to contain 
ISIS.
  I reminded the President that as two New Yorkers, we probably knew 
better than most the damage a small band of terrorists can do, even 
from a half a world away. I asked: What is your plan to prevent ISIS 
from regrouping and resurging? He didn't have one. Secretary of Defense 
Mark Esper didn't have a plan.
  After we pushed them and pushed them, I said: Who is going to take 
care of all these prisoners? The President said there were 70,000 ISIS 
prisoners and their families. Who is going to take care of them, make 
sure they don't escape, as some have already?
  They finally said: Well, the Syrians and the Turks will do that. So I 
asked the group if they had any intelligence or assurances that the 
Turks and Syrians would do a decent job. Secretary Esper himself said 
there was no evidence of that.
  This is amazing. Terrorists whom we have spent a decade fighting--we 
have spent billions of dollars and lost lives to fight them--are 
finally in prison. The Kurds are guarding them. The Kurds are leaving, 
understandably, because they have to fight the Turks now. What is the 
plan? There isn't any, except to rely on Syrians, Turks, who have not 
even close to the interest we have in curbing ISIS.
  Assad is much more interested in gaining back his Syrian homeland. 
Erdogan is focused on hurting the Kurds, whom he is fanatically 
against. So they are not going to pay much attention to ISIS.
  It was appalling, just appalling. President Trump has stepped aside 
for Putin, Assad, and Erdogan. Our allies, the Kurds, are being 
slaughtered as a result of our betrayal. Most importantly, as Secretary 
Mattis said, ``if we don't keep the pressure on [in Syria], ISIS will 
resurge. It's absolutely a given that they will come back.''
  The President didn't like hearing Mattis's words, but all of America 
should. He is one of the most respected military minds, one of the most 
respected leaders on both sides of the aisle--liberals, Independents, 
conservatives. Here is what he said, again repeating:


[[Page S5858]]


  

       [I]f we don't keep the pressure on [in Syria], ISIS will 
     resurge. It's absolutely a given that they will come back.

  So make no mistake, the President's incompetence, his impulsiveness, 
his erraticness has made Americans less safe--Americans here in our 
homeland. Congress, today, must make the fact clear to the President in 
a bipartisan fashion.
  We have the opportunity, my colleagues. The House passed a resolution 
condemning the President's decision by an overwhelming vote of 354 to 
60. That means the vast majority of House Republicans--129 to be 
exact--condemned the President's decision in Syria. Leader McCarthy, 
Whip Scalise, and No. 3 Cheney all voted for it. They are as loyal to 
President Trump as anybody, but they saw the danger, the real danger. 
Today the Senate should, and I hope will, follow suit. We can quibble 
about the language, but I have no doubt we can agree on the basic 
message, and there is no reason we can't vote on a Senate resolution 
today.
  Time is of the essence. To say, well, I would like to add this word 
or add this sentence, as Kurds are being slaughtered, as ISIS 
terrorists are escaping--no, no, no. No, no, no. We should move to the 
House bill immediately because we all know there is only one person who 
can reverse this, and that is the President. The greatest ability to 
make him reverse is an overwhelming message from the Republican side--
House and Senate--that this is wrong. He doesn't hear that publicly too 
often from our Republican friends. He has heard it from the House, 
correctly and courageously.
  Please, my friends, my Republican friends in the Senate, let's put 
politics aside. Today let's vote the House bill passed yesterday by 
them. There is no time to waste. Time is of the essence because the 
President still doesn't get it. Our meeting at the White House 
demonstrated that to all who were present. Hopefully, an overwhelming 
bipartisan vote in the Senate will break through to him. I strongly, 
strongly--in the strongest of terms--urge my friend Leader McConnell 
and our Republican colleagues to allow a vote on the Syrian resolution 
today. Security, justice, fairness demand no less.

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