U.S. Policy in Syria

Floor Speech

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Mr. HILL of Arkansas. Mr. Speaker, I was delighted to read that President Trump has reflected on his initial instinct to pull our 2,000 soldiers out of eastern Syria based on his conclusion that ISIS is defeated, and, instead, he is ordering a withdrawal at a proper pace consistent with American objectives.

To meet our goals of a safe American homeland and progress towards regional stability, America must first develop a strategy to eliminate ISIS from northeast Syria along the lower Euphrates valley at the border of Syria and Iraq.

This plan must include a productive role for our partner and ally, the Kurds. It is not in America's interest to abandon our long friends, the Kurds, to Turkish treachery and annihilation.

Recent open-source data suggests there are 30,000 ISIS-related fighters in the lower Euphrates valley. With our allies, we must press this villainous band to its inglorious end.

Our leaving with no plan will squander our immense success in cutting off funding and winning back hard-fought territorial gains from the occupation of ISIS.

Second, America must block Iran. A key here is a small base and deconfliction zone at al-Tanf, a small force of 200 anchors that base along the key highway between Damascus and Baghdad. Not only is this a strategic imperative, Mr. Speaker, but 50,000 refugees are tenuously housed in this deconfliction zone at Rukban. Withdraw, and death awaits them.

Neighboring Jordan can take no more. We must ensure that an allied force remains at al-Tanf, blocking the Iranian-planned autobahn being considered from Tehran to Damascus. Withdraw, Mr. President, and you will leave Israel fully encircled by its greatest enemy, the Ayatollah in Tehran.

Finally, Mr. Speaker, America must achieve peace and stability in Syria. Our small elite presence, our supply lines, and our air superiority offer pressure on the murderous regime in Damascus to reach a settlement to return Syria to peace and return millions of refugees to their towns and ancestral homes.

Leave, Mr. President, and you will squander the great moral victory of your strategic strikes against Assad from his illegal use of chemical weapons and barrel bombs.

Your early decisive actions made our friends, villagers huddling in fear and from the Euphrates to Idlib, shout with joy. ``America is back,'' they shouted.

Leave, Mr. President, with no plan and no strategy, and they will hang their heads as they did during President Obama's shameful abandonment.

Mr. Speaker, this unfortunate chapter unfolding in the tragedy known as Syria foreshadows an unflattering flashback to a time long ago when Great Britain abandoned a role of stability in the Holy Land and India.

In 1948, Churchill rose in the House to oppose Prime Minister Atlee's own unplanned precipitous withdrawal from the Holy Land, saying:

A time limit imposed--a kind of guillotine--will certainly prevent the full, fair, and reasonable discussion of the great, complicated issues that are involved.

Indeed, as Churchill foresaw, mayhem, terror, and destruction were the result of Britain's precipitous withdrawal.

It is said that history doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme. Mr. President, let's not repeat this historical mistake nor let our actions even result in a rhyme.

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