[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 12]
[House]
[Pages 16549-16550]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          THE TRIUMPH OF EVIL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from West 
Virginia (Mr. Mooney) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. MOONEY of West Virginia. Mr. Speaker, last Thursday, President 
Obama used his veto power for the fifth time since taking office. This 
time, it was to reject the $612 billion defense authorization bill: 
H.R. 1735, the National Defense Authorization Act.
  President Obama vetoed the defense bill on the same day that an 
American was killed in Iraq. With so much uncertainty and conflict 
around the world, I would have expected our President to have 
understood the importance of supporting this bipartisan defense bill. 
This veto is inexcusable. Not only is this a blatant show of disrespect 
for our troops, but it is disrespect for our Nation.
  The National Defense Authorization Act also contains key provisions 
that will greatly benefit my State of West Virginia. The provisions 
include the drug interdiction and counterdrug program, the National 
Guard State Partnership Program, and $3.9 million in funding for the 
Charleston, West Virginia, Air National Guard Base.
  It is shortsighted and wrong that the President refused to sign this 
critical defense bill. The bill gives our troops essential resources, 
but President Obama vetoed it because he wants concessions in other 
areas of government spending.
  It is time to stop playing politics with our military. I urge my 
colleagues in the House and Senate to join together to override this 
veto.
  Mr. Speaker, earlier this year, I stood on the floor of this Chamber 
and shared the stories of my constituents who have family members in 
Syria who are experiencing the political turmoil that is seen on the 
news daily. These stories paint a disturbing picture of what life is 
like in Syria right now.
  Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad is inflicting a reign of terror on 
his own people that include the worst kinds of torture, the repeated 
uses of chemical weapons bombardments, and the siege and starvation of 
innocent people. Assad has killed more than 130,000 of his own people 
and has forced an additional 3 to 4 million to flee the country.
  These problems have been exacerbated by the failure of leadership 
from the United States of America. It is not just that Obama has a bad 
plan for how to handle the crisis in Syria. It is that he has no plan 
at all.
  Edmund Burke once said: ``All that is necessary for the triumph of 
evil is that good men do nothing.''
  That is exactly what the Obama administration has done: nothing. Evil 
is triumphing because of it. Innocent people will continue to die if we 
do not act now. We must take the first step and

[[Page 16550]]

establish a no-fly zone so that Assad cannot continue to bomb his own 
people from the sky. It is so photos like these won't be commonplace in 
our news.
  This critical action will help, but we have to do more. I call upon 
this administration to wake up to that fact.

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