Water Resources Development Act of 2016 -- Continued

Floor Speech

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Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, people all around the country know that the world is a very dangerous place. It has become more dangerous over the past 7\1/2\ years, and even over the course of this summer. As a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, I come here again to the floor because I have seen one example after another--examples of how the Obama administration seems to not know what is going on when it comes to foreign policy.

I believe the Obama administration--and specifically Secretary Clinton as well as President Obama--have been embarrassingly naive with regard to the Russian reset. I think it has been awful, this disastrous Iran nuclear deal. This country has had an inadequate response to North Korea, which led to another nuclear test just last week.

The President's foreign policy should secure America's national interests and demonstrate America's leadership around the world. The question is, Has the Obama foreign policy done that? It really has not.

Look at what former President Jimmy Carter had to say. He said this about President Obama: ``I can't think of many nations in the world where we have a better relationship now than we did when he took over.''

He went on to say: ``The United States' influence and prestige and respect in the world is probably lower now than it was 6 or 7 years ago.''

So you have to ask yourself: Why is this happening?

Well, I think it is clear that President Obama has really refused to stand up to the aggression of other countries. For more than 7 years, the President has followed the advice of his foreign policy team, and I think he has been very, very reluctant and hesitant to take threats seriously.

Every time the President does this, he emboldens our adversaries around the world to be more aggressive. Every day the President allows these threats to go unanswered, he is endangering America and our allies. Our allies don't respect us. Our enemies no longer fear us.

Let's take a look at Syria. It was 5 years ago that President Obama called on Assad to step aside--5 years ago. A few months later, Secretary Hillary Clinton said that it was only a matter of time-- almost 5 years ago--before the Assad regime would fall. It was her judgment, the Secretary of State, now running for President.

The Obama administration's policy was to wait and hope for the best. It didn't back up its words with any meaningful support for the moderate opposition in Syria.

In 2012, President Obama said that if Assad used chemical weapons, he would be crossing a redline. Well, Assad knew that when President Obama and his team make threats like that, they are empty threats. So the very next year, Assad used chemical weapons, and the President of the United States did nothing. The redline became a green light, and it remains a green light today.

The common rule in terms of foreign policy and deterrence is if you make a statement, you have to back up those words with action or you will invite aggression by others, and that is the reason our friends no longer trust us and our enemies no longer fear us.

Earlier this year, the State Department admitted that Syria has used chlorine as a chemical weapon systematically and repeatedly--not just once, not just twice--systematically and repeatedly against the Syrian people every year--every year since that redline was drawn. It wasn't just one time in 2013; it was every year since then.

Did President Obama secure America's national interests with his weak response in Syria? Did he demonstrate American leadership? He did not.

Let's move from Syria to Russia. Although Russia has been very involved in Syria, let's take a look at Russia. We all remember Secretary of State at the time Hillary Clinton going to Russia and pushing her ``reset'' button. We all remember in 2012, President Obama laughed off a suggestion that Russia was a serious threat to the United States. He did it during a Presidential debate. Russia responded to the reset--a reset in terms of what Russia has done--ignored it, sent troops into Ukraine and Crimea, annexed Crimea and invaded eastern Ukraine.

President Obama again showed weakness in responding to a very aggressive military action by Russia. When President Obama shows weakness, which is repeatedly, leaders around the world who watch him move accordingly, and that is why Russia moved. That is why we have seen Vladimir Putin being so aggressive in using his military to keep Assad in power. Recently, President Putin even launched airstrikes from Iranian territory--from Iran--against opposition forces in Syria. What does this do? It props up Assad. The CIA Director told the Senate in June that Assad, in the CIA Director's words, ``is in a stronger position than he was last year.''

The CIA Director says that Assad is in a stronger position than he was last year. Hillary Clinton said he was going to fall almost 5 years ago. Why is Syria in a stronger position? The CIA Director said it was as a result of the Russian military intervention, and that is because Russia can act with impunity. Vladimir Putin knows that because he sees that President Obama continues to show weakness, and Vladimir Putin can smell the weakness. Despite this, the President continues his misguided obsession in negotiating with Russia, as if our two countries have the same goal in mind when it comes to Syria.

Listen to what the White House says. The White House says it has negotiated a ceasefire with Russia in Syria. We have seen this before. Russia makes promises. Russia breaks promises. Russia makes new promises. Russia breaks new promises.

Syria makes promises. Syria breaks promises. Syria makes other promises. Syria breaks other promises. We have seen it with chemical weapons. We have seen it with this so-called deal that was brokered to get the chemical weapons out of Syria, which Secretary of State Kerry boasts about as being so successful.

For almost 8 years, this administration has been living in a cocoon of self-delusion with regard to Russia. Has President Obama, in any way, secured America's national interests with his weak response to Russia? Has he demonstrated American leadership globally?

That is what the American people want. They want the United States to be the most powerful and respected country on the face of the Earth. It is not what they got with President Obama.

What about Iran? The President likes to talk about his nuclear deal with Iran as if he thinks it is the greatest foreign policy success of all time. He believes this deal is paving the way for an Iran without nuclear weapons, but instead it is paving the way for a nuclear-armed Iran. The deal means the Iranian economy has already begun to benefit from access to more than $100 billion.

Now we have learned that, just when that deal went into effect, President Obama went even further and arranged to send Iran another $1.7 billion in cash--euros and Swiss francs, piled up on pallets. He sent $400 million as a down payment in January, and within 24 hours of sending the cash to Iran, the Iranians agreed to release Americans who they had been holding hostage. The White House says it wasn't a ransom payment to free these American hostages. They want the American people to believe it was just a coincidence in timing.

Well, you can bet the Iranians don't believe it is a coincidence, and, actually, they said it is not a coincidence. They said it was the money for the release of the hostages.

We know from experience that the Iranians see hostage-taking as a valid way of conducting their own foreign policy. The President plays right into their hands. They have also gotten the message that for them it can be a very profitable approach as well. President Obama has been greasing the skids to give billions of dollars to Iran. He has done nothing to get Iran to pay the money it owes to U.S. victims of terrorism.

Who are the victims of terrorism who are U.S. citizens? According to the Congressional Research Service, courts have awarded more than $55 billion in damages for victims of Iran's terrorism. Most of these include victims of the 1979 Embassy hostage crisis. They include victims in the 1983 bombing of the Marine barracks in Lebanon and the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia.

Has President Obama done anything to secure America's national interests by letting Iran think that we pay ransom for hostages? Is that a demonstration of leadership? Of course, it is not.

We all know the world is a dangerous place and that there are countries that are headed by thugs and zealots, and when the President of the United States responds on behalf of the people of the United States and responds with weakness and desperation, other leaders interpret that fear and see it as fear and smell the weakness every time.

We are going to keep seeing this kind of aggression and bullying by these macho men, if you will, who run Iran, Syria, Russia, North Korea, and China. These are the leaders around the world who, through the President's actions, do not respect or fear him. He has brought this on himself and the American people due to the way he has reacted and led the country. These are leaders who smell weakness.

We need a foreign policy aimed at securing America's national interests and demonstrating America's leadership. Under President Obama, American power has declined, respect around the world has evaporated, and the Obama foreign policy has been a complete failure.

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