Washington,
DC- Congressman Adam Kinzinger (R-Channahon) issued the following
statement after the House passed legislation that would grant President
Obama authority to provide
certain weapons and training to the Free Syrian Army, moderate Syrian
rebels who have recently been battling ISIS:
"While
I recognize this plan is not perfect, nor will it ultimately be enough
to crush ISIS, we must give our Commander in Chief the tools he has
requested to confront this evil,"
said Congressman Kinzinger. "This is only a first step in a long fight
to ensure we are safe from brutal extremists who would gladly take
innocent American lives if given the chance."
Kinzinger
is a U.S. Air Force Veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan and currently
serves as a major in the Air National Guard (ANG). He has been calling
forair support in Iraq since January, and last year he criticized President Obama's inaction in Syria against the Assad regime.
In
addition to training and equipping elements of the Syrian opposition to
fight ISIS, the legislation, H.J. Res. 124, funds the federal
government at current levels through December
11th, 2014, avoiding the possibility of a shutdown. It also reauthorizes the Export-Import Bank until June 30th, 2015. The bill passed the House with a vote of 319 to 108.
Earlier in the day, Kinzinger took the House floor to support of the legislation. Clickhere or the picture below to watch his speech.
TRANSCRIPT:
Congressman
Kinzinger: "Today I joined many of my colleagues on both sides of the
aisle in support of giving the president initial authority needed to
confront ISIS in Syria.
I'm actually surprised and disheartened by the opposition that some
here in this chamber have towards the amendment. To be clear, I've been
as vocal of a critic of this Administration's lack of strategy in Syria
as any other person, but that doesn't excuse
us from what I believe is the right thing to do, which is to give the
commander in chief the tools necessary to confront this evil. I don't
remember many of my colleagues from this body stepping forward a year
ago or even a month ago urging the President to
do more in Syria.
In
fact, at the beginning of this year I called for bombing ISIS targets
as they moved into Falloujah in Iraq, and by many I was called a
warmonger or somebody eager to start
another war in Iraq. It's easy to come up with any excuse not to
support an amendment. Some say it doesn't go far enough. I've heard from
a lot of people here who say it doesn't go far enough. Some people say
it goes too far. It's too much. It doesn't include
an authorization of military force. It doesn't include an overarching
strategy in ISIS or Syria. I reject those calls for a perfect strategy
from a perfect president for a perfect outcome in Syria. That's simply
not possible given the circumstances we now
face due to our previous inaction.
Mr.
Speaker, to those who believe that the Assad regime is a partner in the
fight against ISIS, I would remind them that this regime has
slaughtered nearly 200,000 of its own
people. In fact, in Iraq, when we were fighting Al Qaeda, the Assad
regime gave Al Qaeda safe haven in Syria to fight American forces. Look
no further than Hezbollah, one of the greatest enemies of the West and
one of the greatest enemies of Israel, which
is strongly supported and enabled by the Assad regime. The Assad
regime created the ISIS problem. It gave them safe passage through
regime-controlled territory and ultimately attacked only Free Syrian
Army targets until the West looked over and now they look
like the savior of the West by attacking only ISIS.
Let's
not get sucked into that argument. I support this amendment not because
it's part of a larger strategy in Syria that we'd like to see from this
administration but because
it's a first step in addressing ISIS in Syria. I ask my colleagues to
support this first step that many have been calling for to train the FSA
before it's too late. What would our enemies and allies think if we
rejected the President's authority to do this?
I urge support of this amendment, and I yield back."