KILLING THE INNOCENTS IN SYRIA; Congressional Record Vol. 162, No. 135

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KILLING THE INNOCENTS IN SYRIA

The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from

Illinois (Mr. Kinzinger) for 5 minutes.

Mr. KINZINGER of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I want to tell you a story.

There was a little boy named Ali Daqneesh, age 10, and his little

brother is Omran. That is the boy you see in the photo here that was

shared across the Internet, worldwide, 2 weeks ago.

Ali was a really good big brother. He loved to play outside, and he

was still at that age when kids really get to dream big and imagine

their future. I can only imagine the life that Ali looked forward to.

Maybe he wanted to be a police officer; maybe he wanted to be a teacher

or a doctor. I really can't say for certain because, tragically, his

life was cut short by an airstrike.

Ali's death is an all-too-common fate for many of Syria's men, women,

and children. These are the people who have lost their chance at life

from the brutality of Bashar al-Assad and Vladimir Putin.

Of the over 500,000 dead Syrians, more than 50,000 are Syrian

children who have been killed since the evil dictator Bashar al-Assad

turned against his own people in 2011. Yet, even as the world continues

to be outraged over these atrocities and pictures of dazed and bloody

Syrian children like Ali's brother Omran, Assad and Russia and their

Iranian backers are still barrel-bombing and launching chemical weapons

against civilian targets.

On a daily basis, we hear that Syrian and Russian fighter planes have

launched attacks on medical facilities and hospitals across the

country. When these facilities are bombed, it is the children who

suffer. In fact, the regime's belief is don't target, necessarily,

military assets because, when you target innocent civilians, you

inflict more collective pain on the population of Syria; and in Assad's

estimation, that brings the war closer to an end.

At the end of July, a maternity hospital in Idlib was bombed. A

recent story in The New Yorker highlighted the horror that comes with

these bombings. In Aleppo, newborns in incubators suffocated to death

because a Syrian or Russian airstrike cut off power to a hospital. Who

is doing this? And why?

Bashar al-Assad continued the legacy of brutality against his people

from his father--his father, who had one goal, and that was to keep

power. Power is a crazy motivator for some people. The people of Syria,

in 2011, decided they wanted some freedom, as is humanity's right, and

they stood up and protested peacefully against Assad.

What did Assad do? Did he respond by saying: Well, let's talk and

maybe find a way to have an outlet for your interests or your concerns?

No. Assad rolled the tanks. Assad said he would kill his opposition.

And what ensued after that was the incubation of a group we know today

as ISIS, the opening of a civil war in Syria that is now spreading all

over the Middle East, a massive refugee crisis around the world.

I hear some people in political conversations today express

admiration for Vladimir Putin. They express admiration for Vladimir

Putin's strength, as if oppressing and killing people is something to

be proud of. That doesn't show strength. That shows weakness.

Mr. Speaker, Vladimir Putin and Russia are tearing Europe apart.

Vladimir Putin and Russia are delivering bombs on medical facilities

and on children in Syria. They are no ally of ours. Sometimes the enemy

of our enemy is still our enemy.

Mr. Speaker, I hear people sometimes say that dictatorships work in

the Middle East. Sometimes they say that this introduction of freedom

has somehow been terrible for people who just aren't ready for it. I

agree. The introduction of freedom to a society that is not used to it

can sometimes be very messy, and sometimes in the course of looking

back over 20 years of history we see the success. That happened in our

own founding. We went through the Civil War. We went through a bloody

Revolution. We went through a time where we kept an entire race in

chains. But, Mr. Speaker, when people say that dictatorships work, no,

they don't.

This kid, I always wonder what is going through his mind. Probably

not much because he was stunned at the bomb that landed on his house

and killed his brother.

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