TURKEY AND SYRIA; Congressional Record Vol. 165, No. 164

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TURKEY AND SYRIA

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, on Syria, yesterday, the U.S. military

carried out airstrikes to destroy what only a few weeks ago had been

the headquarters of the American campaign to destroy ISIS in Syria.

Nothing encapsulates the failure of President Trump's decision to stand

aside for Erdogan more than the fact that we are now bombing our own

bases rather than allow them to fall into the hands of Assad, Erdogan,

or Putin.

If Erdogan, Putin, and Assad are such great allies or no problem, as

President Trump told us yesterday at the White House, then why do we

have to bomb our own headquarters after American troops evacuated so it

doesn't fall into Syrian or Turkish or even Russian hands? That one

thing encapsulates the absurdity, the awfulness of President Trump's

lack of policy and erratic, impulsive, and whimsical movements on the

Syrian front.

Yesterday the President said this withdrawal was a \\\`\\\`strategic

move.'' It certainly is not that because this is not the action of a

military that carried out a deliberate withdrawal. It is the action of

a military that was given a fly-by-the-seat-of-his-pants decision of

the President contrary to the recommendations of the commanders on the

ground.

Donald Trump has the nerve, the gall, to think he knows more about

the military than these generals who have served our country for

decades. It is appalling. How does America put up with this? How do our

Republican colleagues put up with this? He doesn't consult the

generals. What a blunder, and it seems to be the result of the

President's inability to say no to dictators. He seems to like a Putin

and an Erdogan and even a Kim more than our allies. This is also a

clear demonstration of the President's fecklessness and recklessness,

both, or as my colleague Senator Lindsey Graham, and one of the

President's staunchest allies in Congress, said, \\\`\\\`I fear that this is

a complete and utter national security disaster in the making.''

Yesterday afternoon, congressional leaders went to the White House,

at its request, to meet with the President about the rapid

disintegration of the situation in northern Syria. Speaker Pelosi and I

talked about it ahead of time, and we talked about it with Senators

Reed and Menendez as well. We had a serious purpose: to find out if the

President actually had a plan to contain ISIS and fix the mess

precipitated by his decision to green-light Erdogan's military

incursion into Syria.

Alarmingly--alarmingly--President Trump had no plan. The greatest

insult that occurred in that room was not any of the name-calling that

Trump did. A far greater insult to America, to all of us, was the lack

of any policy guidance, any policy decisions, any direction from the

President and his top national security advisers on how to contain

ISIS.

I reminded the President that as two New Yorkers, we probably knew

better than most the damage a small band of terrorists can do, even

from a half a world away. I asked: What is your plan to prevent ISIS

from regrouping and resurging? He didn't have one. Secretary of Defense

Mark Esper didn't have a plan.

After we pushed them and pushed them, I said: Who is going to take

care of all these prisoners? The President said there were 70,000 ISIS

prisoners and their families. Who is going to take care of them, make

sure they don't escape, as some have already?

They finally said: Well, the Syrians and the Turks will do that. So I

asked the group if they had any intelligence or assurances that the

Turks and Syrians would do a decent job. Secretary Esper himself said

there was no evidence of that.

This is amazing. Terrorists whom we have spent a decade fighting--we

have spent billions of dollars and lost lives to fight them--are

finally in prison. The Kurds are guarding them. The Kurds are leaving,

understandably, because they have to fight the Turks now. What is the

plan? There isn't any, except to rely on Syrians, Turks, who have not

even close to the interest we have in curbing ISIS.

Assad is much more interested in gaining back his Syrian homeland.

Erdogan is focused on hurting the Kurds, whom he is fanatically

against. So they are not going to pay much attention to ISIS.

It was appalling, just appalling. President Trump has stepped aside

for Putin, Assad, and Erdogan. Our allies, the Kurds, are being

slaughtered as a result of our betrayal. Most importantly, as Secretary

Mattis said, \\\`\\\`if we don't keep the pressure on \\\[in Syria\\\], ISIS will

resurge. It's absolutely a given that they will come back.''

The President didn't like hearing Mattis's words, but all of America

should. He is one of the most respected military minds, one of the most

respected leaders on both sides of the aisle--liberals, Independents,

conservatives. Here is what he said, again repeating:

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