[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 10]
[House]
[Pages 14686-14687]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     THE COALITION OF THE UNWILLING

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 3, 2013, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Gohmert) is recognized 
until 10 p.m. as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. GOHMERT. Mr. Speaker, the President had made a speech last 
Thursday night, and it is amazing that he is ready to go after ISIS or 
ISIL and that the Islamic State is not Islamic as they say they are.
  It is amazing because, from what I have seen in the beheadings, those 
who were doing the beheadings always think that they are being 
religious; so, apparently, the President and his advisers are the only 
ones that think otherwise because they certainly believe it is a 
religion.
  I wanted to hit some key facts very quickly here. President Obama 
talks about this great coalition. After all those criticisms of 
President George W. Bush and the 48 countries or so that actually did 
participate in the war in Iraq, President Obama's coalition of the 
unwilling is a better way to talk about his coalition.
  NATO ally Turkey announced last week they will not allow the U.S. to 
conduct air strikes against ISIS from

[[Page 14687]]

Turkish air bases. So much for their real cooperation.
  Germany said it is not going to join U.S. air strikes against ISIS. 
The United Kingdom has their Foreign Minister announce they will not 
join air strikes only to be later contradicted by Prime Minister 
Cameron.
  Ten Arab countries signed a communique last week in Jeddah agreeing 
to qualified cooperation with the U.S. but without any specifics. The 
State Department claims the Arab nations will conduct air strikes 
against ISIS but refuses to identify which Arab nations will 
participate.
  Top Islamic cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi has criticized U.S. attacks on 
ISIS, and the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood refuses to back any U.S. anti-
ISIS efforts because it might circumvent Islamist-dominated structures 
of the Syrian National Council.
  It is also important to note that this administration has admitted 
they are using back channels to cooperate with Iran. Gee, that would 
have been like, say, maybe Roosevelt saying we are working with Hitler 
because Japan attacked us when they all want to kill us.
  Vetted moderates are losing U.S. weapons. It is important that people 
know, September 2013, The Wall Street Journal reported that ISIS raided 
a Free Syrian Army weapons depot taking small arms ammunition that the 
CIA provided.
  In December 2013, the Free Syrian Army weapon warehouses in Bab al-
Hawa--that is near the Syria-Turkey border--was seized by the Islamic 
Front, prompting the U.S. and the U.K. to stop weapons shipments to the 
FSA.
  In April, the Syrian rebel groups began using heavy weapons including 
TOW antitank missiles provided by the United States. It is a good thing 
our southern border is not porous, or they might be bringing them to 
our border.
  June of 2014, the Syrian Military Council official expresses concern 
that the U.S. is providing weapons directly to the FSA, potentially 
creating Afghan-Somali-style warlords.
  September, we see more reports.
  For heaven's sake, Mr. Speaker, this is no time to be helping people 
who want to cooperate with ISIS to help us take out ISIS. We need 
better than that.
  I yield back the balance of my time.

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