Syrian Displacement Crisis

Floor Speech

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Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I rise today as the Syrian displacement crisis has consumed seven nations in the Middle East, among them Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, obviously, and Syria itself, and has spawned the largest refugee crisis Europe has faced since World War II.

The scope of the damage is incredible. This protracted conflict has decimated Syria's infrastructure and has already taken the lives of over 250,000 civilians, has displaced over 4 million people, and has subjected tens upon thousands of children in that nation to Assad's horrific barrel bombs. Most everyone who remains in Syria endures power and water cuts, the threat of shelling, galloping inflation, and rampant speculation about: What will happen next? Who will help us, the innocents?

With roads often subject to ambush, freedom to travel has been heavily curtailed. Checkpoints and concrete blast barriers have become accepted adornments of daily life. Institutions such as schools, hospitals, and offices remain open in government-held areas, though many schools have become shelters for the legions of war injured and homeless. Truly, it is grim. Often, classes are held in double shifts to make room for the extra students. This is everyday life in Syria.

Five years into the conflict that has ravaged this once-modern nation, more than half of the Syrian population is displaced, with over 4 million refugees in neighboring countries and tens of thousands moving toward Europe. We see this on television every evening.

My hometown of Toledo has taken in 8 weary Syrian families--refugees who have now again found hope in the liberty that America offers--but fewer than 2,000 Syrians have come to the United States, though the war has displaced more than 12 million since 2011. The free world simply cannot allow this savage slaughter and dislocation to continue.

We ask ourselves: Where is the leadership for resolution?

Now, in addition to daily airstrikes against civilians by the Syrian Government violating international humanitarian law, Russian warplanes are striking medical facilities and residential areas in non-ISIL areas where rebel forces are fighting to overthrow the Assad regime while Russia publicly proclaims its aim of eliminating ISIL targets.

I brought a map to the floor here that essentially shows most of Syria, who holds it. If one looks at these red dots here, the Russian planes are mainly bombing in the rebel-held areas, not in the ISIL-held areas. So we see a complex situation that has developed on the ground.

As Putin moves with defiance to maintain the Syrian dictatorship, his actions simply must be checked because it tells us that, in the future, there will be more slaughter with what remains if those moderate forces are not allowed to survive.

Since Russia began airstrikes at the end of September, at least 127 civilians, including 36 children and 34 women, have been killed by Russian airstrikes, according to the opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

For the sake of liberty in Syria, in Europe, and around the world, America, NATO, the Transatlantic Alliance, and our allies in the Middle East must lead the region to peaceful settlement.

I happen to represent a region in America where Syrian Americans have lived for over a century. I can't even explain to you how they feel about the total destruction of their homeland, its artifacts, and its history. I am not even able to contain it in words here.

They came to see me last week, and they asked if I would read some of their words into the Record, which I promised I would do this evening. They want the American people and the world to know:

The biggest killer of civilians in Syria is the Assad regime's use of barrel bombs. Packed with TNT and shrapnel, these dumb bombs have no target and are just dropped from helicopters on civilian neighborhoods. These bombs cause massive destruction and casualties. Thousands upon thousands of children have been killed and injured by these helicopter flights.

And they said to me: Congresswoman, if you can say one thing to the Congress and to those in Washington who can make a difference, please tell them to disrupt and stop these helicopter flyovers. So the barrel bombs aren't coming out of the F-16s obviously flying over Syria, but they are coming from helicopters that the Assad regime is dispatching across that country.

The most important step that can be done to save lives would be the imposition of a no-fly zone. A no-fly zone will turn the tide of war, and bring down the regime of terror and force Assad to negotiate his exit.

We know there is resistance to that, but the world community must meet this latest test in order to secure a better life for the people that remain in Syria, those who may wish to return, and, obviously, the millions that have fled and are in refugee camps throughout that region and now as far as Western Europe.

I would urge the President of our country to consider the appointment of a special envoy without portfolio for Syrian peace to work full-time to bring all relevant nations together to resolve this unfolding tragedy and aim at a civil military strategy for transition and settlement.

I include for the Record Anthony Cordesman's writings.

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Ms. KAPTUR. Anthony Cordesman, probably one of the most respected thinkers on this subject, ends a very significant analysis of the situation in Syria and greater Europe with this admonition. He tells America: ``We face a moment of facing up to honesty, transparency, and realism.''

And he tells us, ``One cannot ignore trees anymore than one can ignore the forest,'' related to Syria. ``The failure of U.S. policy and military efforts, Russian and Iranian support of Assad and major Russian military intervention, and the conflicting ways in which other states intervene will all make matters worse. The impact of religious warfare and extremism, and failed Syrian secularism, are even more serious problems.

``It is time, however, to stop focusing on either ISIS or Assad, to pretend that Syrian `moderates' are strong enough to either affect the security situation or negotiate for Syria's real fighters, and act as if a shattered nation could be united by some top-down negotiation between groups that hate each other and have no competence in dealing with the economic, social, and governance challenges Syria now faces.

``The first step in solving a problem is to honestly assess it. No negotiation can work that does not deal with grim realities and divisions created by years of fighting. No amount of U.S. and Russian intervention and argument can bring security or stability. No U.N. effort at conventional negotiation can survive encounter with reality, and no effort of any kind that does not address the sheer scale of Syrian recovery and reconstruction'' can work.

I commend his writings to my colleagues and the major studies that have been done this year by the Center for Strategic and International Studies as providing a glimmer of the road that we must walk toward.

I want to just thank my colleagues for the opportunity to place this in the Record tonight.

I want to thank the Syrian Americans that live in northern Ohio for their patriotic citizenship and their deep concern about what more the United States of America could do to bring resolution to this deeply troubling conflict in Syria that has precipitated such unrest, not just through that region but, indeed, to all of greater Europe.

I yield back the remainder of my time.

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