[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 13]
[House]
[Pages 18480-18482]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              ISIS CRISIS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Jody B. Hice of Georgia). Under the 
Speaker's announced policy of January 6, 2015, the Chair recognizes the 
gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Russell) for 30 minutes.
  Mr. RUSSELL. Mr. Speaker, Will and Ariel Durant, perhaps the most 
renowned recorders of the history of mankind, wrote shortly after their 
landmark 40-year multivolume work was completed:
  ``Civilization is not inherited; it has to be learned and earned by 
each generation anew; if the transmission should be interrupted . . . 
civilization would die, and we should be savages again.''
  It is a warning we must heed. For all of our advancement in self-
governance, the rule of law, and the betterment of people's lives, the 
world stands in crisis. Our actions toward evil, twisted brands of 
militant Islamic jihadism in the coming months will determine how 
humanity navigates the coming century. As Will Durant correctly 
predicts, we must either prevent the death of civilized life or become 
savages again.
  Responding to the Paris attacks, French President Francois Hollande 
is correct in saying enough is enough. The coalition of willing 
defenders of humanity is immense. The world looks toward America for 
our leadership.
  ``Why? Why does it have to be us?'' people ask. It is for the same 
reason we ask a trusted colleague for counsel, for the same reason a 
resident asks a neighbor to help him with a heavy lift, for the same 
reason a parishioner asks his pastor for guidance in times of crisis, 
for the same reason a citizen asks a policeman for assistance in times 
of trouble, and for the same reason those attacked ask a soldier to 
defend them. For the sake of civilization, we must provide it.
  American accommodation of ISIS savagery through lethargy must end. 
Should America remain dispassionate and disconnected, she is at risk of 
losing her moral compass. Are we really an America today that no longer 
can be moved by any action, by beheadings, immolations, crucifixions, 
sexual enslavement, and human suffering in the lands that these savages 
have forcibly taken? Are we so self-indulged that we somehow think that 
leaving ISIS alone is a legitimate option for the good of the world?
  The President has suggested that ISIS' actions are acts of genocide. 
On that, we absolutely agree.

                              {time}  2045

  Yazidis have been targeted by ISIS in their genocidal fanaticism. One 
city overrun saw ISIS lining up all males 12 and above in a gymnasium, 
separated them into groups, and systematically exterminated them.
  Young Yazidi girls, whose only crime was being born, have been forced 
into sodomistic, sexual slavery by a Godless, evil, twisted brand of 
Islamist jihadist ideology that also conveniently fits rape and child 
molestation into a twisted, sinister form of ethics.
  In Mosul and Palmyra, Christians have been singled out for 
destruction of life and property by marking their structures with an 
Arabic N.
  Across Iraq and Syria, Chaldean and Assyrian Christians have been 
slaughtered while we in Congress thump our chest about refugees as 
Americans call on us to turn a blind eye toward these Syrian refugees 
that the United Nations has tried to place with willing churches and 
sponsors here at home.
  Have we forgotten that it is the statue of Lady Justice that is 
blindfolded as she holds up a balanced scale, not the Statue of Liberty 
who holds the torch?
  Lady Liberty is inscribed on our shores with these words:
  Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp, cries she with silent lips. 
Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe 
free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the 
homeless, tempest-tossed, to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door.
  In the last 3 weeks, more than 400 people have died in three separate 
attacks as a Russian airliner has been blown from the sky, Lebanese 
worshippers were blown to bits, and youthful French citizens and 
tourists were massacred as they ate at cafes and watched a concert.
  As the world watched in horror, it has also looked to the United 
States. Where America leads, nations stand shoulder to shoulder. Where 
America is absent, tyranny takes it chances and rears its ugly head. 
But who would have thought America, through constant inaction and 
listless response, would allow barbarity to prosper?
  Since last year, the President has been unable to articulate his 
strategy to aid our allies in Iraq, Jordan, Turkey, and Israel, as they 
react to the disintegration of Syria on their borders. More broadly, 
the President has been unable and possibly unwilling to form the 
necessary multinational coalitions in the Middle East and elsewhere 
that are essential to curb barbarism and provide stability within the 
Sunni Arab populations of Iraq and Syria, where ISIS has filled the 
void.
  As a combat veteran of Iraq and other places, this has been difficult 
for me personally to process. In service past, we sacrificed to turn 
the country around. I watched my American and Iraqi friends die, 
handled the flesh and blood of infantry combat, performed brutal 
personal combat to take human life, and watched with agony as the good 
people of Iraq suffer in absence of effective government.
  It is personal because I have lived among the Sunni Arab. I have 
celebrated their victories, their weddings, their birthdays, and their 
accomplishments. I have broken bread with them and eaten at their 
communal bowls. I have mourned as close Sunni Arab friends have died to 
acts of terror, mourned when Sunni Arab educated, intelligent, and free 
people have been expunged by ISIS. They do not want this. They have no 
place to go.
  When I lived among them, we told them with conviction and honesty 
that we would be there for them. They believed us. Then the President 
ordered us out.
  We soldiers and servicemembers who have sacrificed so much in Iraq 
weep. We defeated Saddam's army, toppled the Baathist Government, 
captured and brought a world tyrant to justice, fought an insurgency 
and stood shoulder to shoulder with disenfranchised Sunni Arabs and 
Sunni Kurds to restore control to Iraq's government. We turned the 
country around together with a military pause.
  Instead of the United States nurturing a nascent Iraqi 
infrastructure, as we have done in the Philippines, Germany, Japan, and 
South Korea, to give them a future, the President used that pause for 
abandonment, both militarily and diplomatically.
  Worse, he then used that for political expediency. Where we 
sacrificed, he

[[Page 18481]]

quit. When America became absent, radical, evil Islamic jihadists 
filled that gap with cruelty, fear, and barbarity before, a nascent 
government and population had the strength to build trust and hold 
firm.
  Whatever the President's political advantage, whatever the supposed 
cost saving, whatever the heartfelt conviction of why some believed 
abandonment was the optimum course of action, it has instead created a 
political nightmare, transcending nations, and has bled more treasures 
and lives than any estimates our continued presence might have caused.
  Moreover, it has sickened the hearts of world humanity to see 
civilization taking such punishment from savages when a quiver of 
options have been available to shoot at the heart of the problem.
  America has the capacity, the intelligence, and the goodwill to rally 
nations, but it cannot be a unitary effort. It must be collective. It 
cannot be a defensive effort. It must be offensive to blunt further 
attack.
  As President Hollande of France was saying enough is enough, 
President Obama proceeded to tell America and the world what the 
attacks on Paris were not and what our actions would not be.
  Mr. Speaker, this Congress and the American people need rather to 
hear from our President what the attack was and what our actions will 
be to make them stop.
  The President, distracted by his ideological efforts, though sincere, 
on climate, has failed to see that the world is on fire. The people of 
our great Republic have not failed to see it. They are calling on us to 
stand with France and say enough is enough.
  What should be our immediate action? How about some of this? Cripple 
Raqqa. It is clear it is the symbolic center of ISIS power. The 
President's cabinet says: We are worried about collateral damage and 
civilian casualties.
  News flash. The most humane thing we can do to end suffering of 
hundreds of thousands of people is to cripple what ISIS draws its 
strength from. Destroy their infrastructure. Hammer their electricity 
capacity. Drop their transmission lines. Eliminate their cell towers 
where they draw their communications capacity. Destroy the bridges on 
their roads of ingress and egress. Hammer their oil refining 
installations they possess and fund themselves with. We have the 
ability to rebuild them later, but ISIS would be diminished financially 
by their loss.
  Put a different way, the most humane thing we can do to protect 
civilians is to disrupt ISIS' immediate ability to advance and recruit. 
If the U.S. leads, others will stand shoulder to shoulder. We need our 
President to be that man.
  To do these immediate actions on Raqqa, we also need to take the 
handcuffs off of our military that has already deployed. Weeks to get 
approval and missed targets, allowing freedom of movement for ISIS is 
not a way to win anything.
  It is not enough for the Secretary of Defense to merely endorse plans 
put before him by our military experts. Endorse? That type of 
equivocation tells our military leaders: We don't have your back.
  We need the Secretary of Defense to lead. Don't endorse. Approve 
them. The Secretary must take the handcuffs off our pilots and special 
operations forces that are already deployed. Our warriors know what to 
hit. They can't throw punches with handcuffs.
  Another action we can take. World opinion and goodwill is on our 
side. France has the support of all civilized countries. They will 
likely have the support of a U.N.-sanctioned effort. They may ask for 
article V protections under NATO and would likely get it.
  So what will America do? Lead. Let's build that coalition. NATO 
special operations forces, combined with Kurds and Sunni Arabs, can 
provide the immediate ground capacity. Safe zones where Assad cannot 
reach them with airstrikes and barrel bombs will give them 
determinations and hope. Modern civilized allies can provide airpower, 
logistics, the wealth, and the commitment.
  Russia has opened the door with statements from Foreign Minister 
Lavarov that a stabilized Syrian Government cannot include Assad. We 
should walk through that door. That solves having to build new 
governance.
  Syria has survived civil wars before. She can again. Old structures 
can have new leaders with new coalitions that provide voice to all 
Syrians once ISIS is expunged.
  In Iraq, we must find a place for the Sunni Arab and Sunni Kurd to 
have self-determination without having to turn to ISIS. The fighters 
exist. But they won't fight to be enslaved by draconian Shia Arab 
governance in Baghdad. That gives them no future. With Raqqa squeezed 
in Syria, we must build the coalition to restore Mosul and Baiji.
  Then the disenfranchised Sunni Arab and Sunni Kurd must have a place 
at the table both in Syria and Iraq in post-conflict rebuilding. This 
will not be possible while savages run free and civilized nations do 
nothing.
  America needs to build the coalition on an ISIS-first policy. Then we 
can settle into the less barbaric and less threatening future. We have 
a window. Do we have a President that will lead?
  Here are some immediate short-term measures.
  Launch cyberattacks on ISIS recruiting Web sites. While interceptive 
communications is important and we want to track their movements and 
intentions, we cannot confuse that with allowing ISIS propaganda to 
reach into our free communities to turn misguided youth into 
neighborhood attackers.
  Intercept what we must, but attack what draws recruitment and copycat 
actions in the first place. We cannot be just defensive in this area. 
Part of reducing homegrown terrorists is to cut off the juice from ISIS 
abroad. They should not have a free hand in our free speech.
  Now let's talk about counter-messaging. Here is what every American 
can do to help. American news stations and newsprint can join the fight 
by not putting ISIS-produced videos and imagery on networks as B-roll 
on our newscasts and in articles in our newspapers. Why should we 
promote their propaganda?
  Replace it rather with cross-hairs and explosions of their defeat or 
show rather the world their acts of barbarity and the human suffering 
they have created for their own people. Use that for B-roll.
  America must stop aiding and abetting these evil savages that use our 
free press, our laws, and our protections to destroy ours. Americans, 
write your local stations and ask them to please stop.
  Mr. Speaker, I want to shift my focus now to the refugee crisis.
  While I have tried to focus my comments on actions that we should 
take to eliminate ISIS, one action we should not take is to become like 
them. America is a lamp that lights the horizon of civilized and free 
mankind.
  The Statue of Liberty cannot have a stiff arm. Her arm must continue 
to keep the torch burning brightly. If we use our passions, anger, and 
fear to snuff out her flame by xenophobic and knee-jerk policy, the 
enemy wins. We have played into their hands, period.
  Here are some Syrian refugee facts you may not know. Despite a long-
established, multilayered system to vet and bring refugees into the 
United States--I have worked with the International Organization for 
Migration on deployed battlefields, and I have worked with the UNHCR in 
their efforts to help place refugees--despite a long-established 
system, despite biometric and biographic screening, despite 
intelligence vetting with the National Counterterrorism Center, the 
FBI's Terrorist Screening Center, and the Departments of State, 
Defense, and Homeland Security, added to the fact that Syrian refugees 
receive additional screening to national security concerns--and most of 
them are women and children--coupled with the fact that only a total of 
1,900 Syrians have entered this country in the last 4 years, most of 
them women and children, Americans across the country now are calling 
on Lady Liberty to drop her torch and give the stiff arm, with perhaps 
even another gesture.

[[Page 18482]]



                              {time}  2100

  I want you to listen carefully to these statements by Members of 
Congress in response to a refugee bill--not an illegal immigration bill 
or permanent residents, but refugees, a refugee bill. Listen to these 
comments by Members of Congress about people fleeing for their lives.
  Fighting immigration is ``the best vote-getting argument . . . The 
politician can beat his breast and proclaim his loyalty to America.''
  ``He can tell the unemployed man that he is out of work because some 
alien has a job.''
  Here is another one:
  Congress must ``protect the youth of America from this foreign 
invasion.''
  And how about this one?
  ``American children have first claim to America's charity.''
  There are many more, but these quotes were from 1939. The refugee 
bill was not for Muslim and Christian Syrians or Iraqi Muslims, 
Christians and Yazidis; it was for German Jews. While it was true that 
Germany was, indeed, a threat, the refugees were not. They were 20,000 
children.
  Not only did that bill of 1939 not pass, but that Congress, with the 
same speech and rhetoric that I have been hearing in recent days in 
this august Chamber, Mr. Speaker, passed hurdle after hurdle in 1939 to 
make it more difficult for refugees to enter. They were, unfortunately, 
successful.
  Mr. Speaker, America protects her liberty and defends her shores not 
by punishing those who would be free; she does it by guarding liberty 
with her life.
  Americans need to sacrifice and wake up. We must not become them. 
They win if we give up who we are, and even more so, without a fight.
  We guard our way of life by vigilance. We must be watchful. We have 
to have each others' back and be alert to dangers around us. We must 
speak up when we see something unusual. By maintaining who we are 
amidst the threat, amidst the hatred, amidst the trials, we win.
  Patrick Henry did not say, ``Give me safety or give me death,'' but, 
rather, ``Give me liberty,'' implying that he was willing to lose his 
life to defend that liberty.
  We have defended our way of life, Mr. Speaker, for 240 years. Now we 
as Americans must defend it again.
  We must defend it when the critic sitting on the couch in his 
underwear eating his bag of cheese puffs is pecking out hatred and 
vitriol on some social media.
  We must defend it and have courage when voters are caught up with 
sincere passion, demanding security that also might kill our liberty.
  We must defend it with our warriors who have worked hard to keep the 
fight off our shores by being vigilant and aware at home and while 
looking after their families who don't have them to protect them.
  We will always have threats, but liberty, when lost, takes 
generations, if ever, to regain.
  I am asking all Americans tonight to pray for our President. How much 
time, really, have we spent on our knees at home for our leaders? How 
much counsel have we sought from the Almighty?
  It is God who has given us the spark of freedom. It is He we must 
turn to. He will take us and guide us in times of crisis, if we only 
ask Him and humble ourselves and seek His face as a nation.
  Mr. Speaker, we would not even have that nation without the aid of 
France. Lady Liberty would not even stand on our shores without the 
generosity of France. And now, as civilization faces peril and trial, 
we must stand the test, shoulder to shoulder with France, this 
Congress, our people, our way of life.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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