[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 13302]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        NATION-BUILDING AT HOME

  (Mr. HIGGINS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. HIGGINS. Mr. Speaker, the situation in Syria is that of a 
national civil war. It's a sectarian and ethnic conflict between two 
warring factions. This is not about democracy and freedom. There is no 
social contract. There is no constitution. There is no preamble. There 
is no unifying vision as to what Syria wants to become. This is a 
brutal battle between two bad sides for control. Assad is a brutal 
dictator, for certain; but the opposition's best fighters are al Qaeda 
and Islamic extremists bent on creating an Islamic state in Syria.
  In the international community, 194 countries have said--but for 
Turkey and France--yes, the United States, go get them; just don't ask 
us to participate. So the American people will find themselves, once 
again, for the third time in a decade, in a region of the Middle East 
in South Asia in another civil war, essentially alone again.
  The American people want nation-building. But they want it right here 
at home, in America.

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