SITUATION IN SYRIA; Congressional Record Vol. 161, No. 142

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SITUATION IN SYRIA

The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from

Connecticut (Mr. Himes) for 5 minutes.

Mr. HIMES. Mr. Speaker, I am not generally in the habit of agreeing

with my friend from Texas, but I do thank him for posing some really

challenging questions about our activities in Syria.

I think it is fair to say that the situation in Syria has gotten

worse, not better. And only now that the chaos in Syria results in the

flow of hundreds of thousands of people into Europe and into

surrounding and delicately constructed countries, only now that we are

having a conversation about how many Syrian refugees we will take in

the United States are we beginning to take notice of the moral tragedy

that has been with Syria for many, many years.

The civil war in Syria has resulted in the deaths of more than

300,000 people. It has created 4 million refugees and displaced more

than 6.5 million people into places like Jordan and Turkey--and now, in

Europe and elsewhere around the world.

Sadly, it appears that the efforts that we have made, which my friend

from Texas referred to, have been ineffectual, to put it mildly, and

the situation grows worse. We watch now the Russians introducing

military equipment into Syria, something that can only result in more

violence, more death, and more refugees. We see, sadly--and I have

watched this closely from my perch on the House Permanent Select

Committee on Intelligence--ISIS gaining in strength, not losing

strength.

There are lots of conversations to be had about U.S. efforts to train

and equip the so-called Syrian moderates. There are conversations to be

had about how we deal with Russian influence in the area. But something

we must focus on now, and something that is the subject of a letter

that I and 54 of my colleagues have sent to the President of the United

States, is that the only real solution in Syria, a solution that should

be implemented today, is for the international community, all of the

players that have a stake and influence in Syria, to come together

today to begin the process of working out an international agreement,

the terms of which will undoubtedly be uncomfortable for us, but an

agreement that will bring an end to the civil war. This agreement

should provide for the exit of Bashar al-Assad. He has lost all

credibility as a global leader, but he remains there.

Apart from ending the humanitarian and moral crisis in Syria, that

conference would allow us to finally align behind an objective that I

believe is shared by pretty much everybody in the region, which is the

destruction of ISIS.

Until we take this step of coming together around a table that, yes,

will involve some unsavory characters, that, yes, will not lead to an

agreement that we regard as perfect, until we do that, we will simply

be managing chaos. And maybe we will manage chaos well, but it will

still be managing chaos: hundreds of thousands of refugees and the

destabilization that that will cause, more weaponry being introduced,

more U.S. taxpayer dollars expended.

We can do that. That is what we have been doing. We can do it for

more months and more years. Or we can do the obvious thing, which is

get around a table--and I do call on the President of the United States

to show American leadership in this--and say we don't leave the room

until this moral tragedy is stopped.

This is what it would mean to be a leader in the world. We can bomb.

We can send military equipment. We do that a lot. Real leadership will

involve saying we will come together with people we like and people we

don't to solve this problem.

I call on this House to assist me and others in the effort to make

sure that

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this becomes a national priority so we can finally bring this tragedy

in the Middle East to an end.

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