[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 169 (Thursday, October 24, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6137-S6138]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                            Turkey and Syria

  Madam President, yesterday, in an address from the White House, 
President Trump announced he was canceling proposed sanctions against 
Erdogan, this time after Assad, Erdogan, and Putin got more than they 
could ever hope for out of President Trump's abrupt decision to 
withdraw U.S. troops from northern Syria. It was another nonsensical 
and counterproductive foreign policy decision by President Trump. The 
notion that the United States should trust Erdogan or Assad or Putin to 
secure ISIS fighters and sympathizers is not only delusional, it is 
downright dangerous.
  President Trump's weakness in the face of strongmen and his reckless 
decisionmaking are putting the lives of our partners and allies and 
Americans at risk. As Assad, Erdogan, and Putin exert more influence on 
the region, as the Syrian Kurds are driven from the region and killed, 
as ISIS-connected

[[Page S6138]]

detainees escape and regroup--many of them planning to hurt us here in 
our homeland--again, President Trump articulates no plan to fix what he 
has broken.
  His top officials--Secretary of State Pompeo and Secretary Esper--
have canceled two briefings with the Senate, during which they were 
supposed to update the Senate on the administration's plan. I think 
they keep canceling and ducking because they don't have a plan and 
wouldn't know what to say. That is very, very disturbing.
  My Republican colleagues, please stand up and speak out about the 
obvious dangers to our national security that President Trump has 
invited.
  Some, to their credit, have done so, but others have gone so far as 
to excuse the President's decision even if it results in the ethnic 
cleansing of the Kurds, our brave and former partners in the fight 
against ISIS. That is not right. Democrats and Republicans must 
continue to press the President to correct course in northern Syria and 
quickly develop a plan of action to contain ISIS and secure its 
enduring defeat.