Water Resources Development Act of 2016

Floor Speech

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Mr. GRAHAM. Mr. President, I want to associate myself with everything my friend said. Here is our dilemma. There are two forces inside of Syria that are a threat to us, the region, and the people in Syria-- ISIL, al-Nusra, and the other radical Sunni groups are certainly a threat to the United States. Raqqa, which is the capital of the ISIL's caliphate, is in Syria. They planned the attacks in Paris and Europe out of Raqqa, and they communicate with sleeper cells throughout the world. Thousands of westerners have gone to Syria for training under ISIL's control. The bottom line is, it is in our interest to destroy this caliphate because the next 9/11-type attack is being planned in Syria. If you take the land away from ISIL, then you are doing a lot of damage to them, and they become a terrorist organization rather than a terrorist army. The plan to destroy ISIL is beyond ill-conceived.

I had dinner last night with the Turkish Ambassador. What is the ground force we are relying upon to go take Raqqa away from ISIL? You are clearly not going to win the war from the air. We have done a lot of damage, but the air campaign will not destroy the caliphate. Somebody has to go in on the ground and actually liberate Raqqa, take Mosul back, and all the other stuff.

Inside Syria, the main fighting force is a Kurdish force called the YPG. The Kurdish force inside Syria is the mortal enemy of Turkey. On two occasions, you have seen where Turkey used military force against the coalition we are training to destroy ISIL because in the eyes of Turkey, substituting ISIL for YPG Kurds is not a good trade.

Most Members of the body--I don't know if you are following this, but you should. The whole goal is not to destroy ISIL. It is to do as much damage to ISIL as possible and pass this problem on to the next President. For a couple of years, Senator McCain and I have made the argument that the liberating force--if it is made up of Kurds--is doomed to fail. The Arabs in the region are going to have a hard time turning over more of Syria to the YPG Kurds, and it is a nonstarter for Turkey. This ceasefire is brought on by the fact that Aleppo is Hell on Earth.

The administration's goal was to destroy ISIL and replace Assad. Assad will be in power and Obama will be gone, and this failure of the Obama administration to act effectively has changed the balance of power. Four years ago, Senator McCain and I and others argued to help the Free Syrian Army while it was intact. The entire national security team of President Obama advised him to aggressively train the Free Syrian Army to take Assad out because he is a puppet of Iran. The one thing I can tell you is, no Arab country in the region is going to recognize Assad as the legitimate leader of Syria because his main benefactors are the Iranians, their mortal enemy.

Instead of helping the Free Syrian Army, President Obama blinked and took a pass. That vacuum was filled. Hezbollah sent in 5,000 fighters. They are also a puppet of Iran. Their Hezbollah militia, which is supported by the Iranians, came to Assad's aid as we backed off of helping the Free Syrian Army, and then Russia came in for Assad. So now the Russian President has been bombing forces trained by the American President, and we are not doing a damned thing about it.

All of the training we provided to the Free Syrian Army has been basically neutered by the fact that Russia and Iran are now firmly in Assad's camp. When we were trying to train Syrians to go take out ISIL, we also wanted them to take the fight to Assad. Obama's refusal to do anything about Assad has created a vacuum. Very few Syrians are going to go fight ISIL and not turn their attention to the ``Butcher of Damascus,'' the person who has killed 250,000 to 400,000 of their family.

This whole Syrian strategy is flawed. The ceasefire is an opportunity for Assad and Russia to retrench. Here is what will happen. We are going to have a ceasefire. Hopefully, some of the humanitarian aid will get to Aleppo, but as Senator McCain said, when it is all said and done, they are going to gobble up more territory. This idea of the United States partnering with Russia to go after the al-Nusra group, which has changed its name, to me, is very dangerous. Our military is very reluctant to share with the Russian military targeting and how we know where people are. Sharing information with the Russians is very dangerous to do in Syria because their goal is not to just destroy radical Islamic groups, their goal is to keep their puppet Assad in power.

This whole idea of a joint operation center, where the United States and Russia will focus their attention on al-Nusra elements, is doomed to fail because in the eyes of Assad, everybody who opposes him is a terrorist. All the people we are training to liberate Syria from Assad, in the eyes of Assad, are no different than ISIL. So to expect Assad and Russia to limit their military activity to radical Islamic groups and not go after the opposition in general defies the past.

Russia has dropped more bombs on people we have trained than they have on ISIL. Russia has hit more targets aligned with opposition to Assad than they have al-Nusra targets. Why? Russia is using their military might to give Assad military superiority and at the same time helping on the margins with radical Islam.

The biggest mistake of all was to not help the Free Syrian Army when they were intact and allow Russia and Iran to fill this vacuum. I will say this to anybody on the other side who believes this strategy is going to result in Assad leaving, you are completely out to lunch. Why would Assad leave when he is winning? Why would Assad leave when Russia and Iran are firmly in his camp? Why would Assad leave when the Russians can bomb the people the Americans are training to take Assad out and America will do nothing about it?

This whole idea that there is some plan coming that will replace Assad is a complete fantasy. This ceasefire is not going to bring about the results we all would hope for, which is the destruction of ISIL and the removal of the ``Butcher of Damascus,'' Assad, who is an enemy of the Syrian people, who helped send fighters into Iraq to kill American soldiers as we were trying to help Iraqis, who is a puppet of Iran and a proxy of Russia.

To the administration, most people are not paying any attention. You are literally getting away with national security malpractice because most people are not paying much attention, and there is a war over there involving people we can't relate to. All I can tell you is, you should be worried about what is going on in Syria because it will affect us here at home. We are about to give yet another Arab capital to the Iranians. This will be the fourth Arab capital that Iran has basically had to fight their control over, and that is not good for our interests because our Arab allies will be put in a spot one day where they will have to fight back.

If you want to create a bigger war in the Middle East, we are on track to do it. We are about to create a conflict for our Turkish allies and the people we are trying to liberate--Raqqa from ISIL inside of Syria. In the effort of destroying ISIL, we have created a nightmare for Turkey. In the effort of destroying ISIL, we are giving Assad a pass, which is nightmare for Jordon and Lebanon and all of our Arab allies.

In other words, in our effort to destroy ISIL, we are empowering Iran. In our effort to destroy ISIL, we are making Russia more effective in the Middle East than they have been since the early 1970s. In our effort to destroy ISIL, we have created an imbalance of power in the Middle East that will come back to haunt us. The bottom line is, Obama and his administration wanted this nuclear deal with the Iranians so much that he would not challenge their proxy in Syria. They want cooperation with the Russians so much when it comes to Iran and other issues, they will not challenge Russian aggression inside Syria.

Here is what will come back to bite us all. In the future, nobody in the Middle East will rely upon us. Every Arab government I have talked to has asked: Where has America gone? Why should we join with you? You are an unreliable ally. The stain on our honor is very great. All those young Syrian men who were brought to the fight and trained to fight ISIL and get rid Assad, many of them have been killed by Assad and Russia and we haven't done a damned thing about it.

What are the consequences of this? It is going to be harder for people to work with us in the future, and it is going to be easier for our enemies to peel off people in the region. The vacuum we are creating today will grow over time.

I hope the next President, whomever he or she will be, will revisit our strategy in Syria because it is on a collision course.

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Mr. GRAHAM. All with families.

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