{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://kinzinger.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=399045", "Rep. Kinzinger: My Trip to the Middle East", "2014-10-08", "2014", "2014-10", "Republican", "House", "IL", "Adam Kinzinger", "K000378", "kinzinger.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Congressman Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) discusses his recent trip to the Middle East.\r\n          share:\r\n          f \r\n          t \r\n        \r\n      \r\n      As a veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, I've witnessed firsthand the death and destruction that has plagued millions at the hands of terrorists in the Middle East. Since my last overseas deployment in the Air Force, the names of the terrorists have changed, but the tragedy and human loss remains the same. In addition to al Qaeda, we now have Bashar al Assad murdering 200,000 innocent people, which has paved the way for the terrorist group known as ISIS to take over large parts of Syria and Iraq. As a member of Congress, I simply cannot stand by and watch these evil people take over. Last year, I was adamant that President Obama enforce his red line after Assad used chemical weapons on hundreds of civilians. In January, I called for airstrikes against ISIS after they captured the town of Fallujah, just miles from Baghdad. As events in the region continue to spiral out of control, I knew I needed to see the devastation for myself. Last week, I packed my bags and headed to the Middle East as part of my duties with the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Number one on the agenda: meet with the Free Syrian Army, who are the boots-on-the-ground fighting Assad and ISIS. It would have been too dangerous to meet with them in Syria, so I met with them in Antakya, Turkey to hear directly from them about what is happening on the ground. I needed to speak with the rebels myself to see just how committed they are to fighting ISIS and protecting ethnic and religious minorities, including Christians.  In these meetings, I was honored to facilitate negotiations between the Free Syrian Army and the Christian Syriac Military Council. These two groups have been fighting ISIS independently, and now, they're united as both Muslims and Christians against this terrorist group masquerading as a religious cause. Unfortunately, though they have come together, the groups still lack the resources that ISIS has. That's where US comes in- they need our help to destroy ISIS. I had the chance to talk about my meetings with Syrian rebel leaders on CNN.  The next day we had meetings with the Syria Transition Assistance Response Team and the Syrian Opposition Coalition, two groups that are working towards a free, democratic, secular government- everything the Assad regime is not. These groups are also working to help victims of Assad's brutality. Here I am meeting with a US-backed Syrian opposition radio station run by a 23-year-old woman.  On Saturday, we headed into the northern part of Iraq to the city of Erbil. This part of the country is ruled by the Kurdistan Regional Government, and the Kurds are another key ally in the fight against ISIS. Their army, called the peshmerga, has been helping American efforts in Iraq for years. They know the region better than anyone, and meeting with their leaders confirmed what I've known for a while now: the Kurds are our friends, and we need their help. We had a great meeting with Kurdish Foreign Minister Falah Mustafa Bakir.  The Kurdish leaders brought us to a United Nations refugee camp outside Erbil. We keep hearing on the news about the terrible things that ISIS and the Assad regime are doing. In reality, the situation is worse than I had ever imagined. These innocent people have gone from living peacefully in Syria and Iraq to living in tents in a refugee camp. And they are the lucky ones. I met a 13-year-old girl taking care of her disabled 5-year-old brother because both of their parents were killed by ISIS. At the end of the day, these are the people we must fight for- the innocent civilians being brutally and unfairly attacked. We must fight for them and so that this brutality never reaches our own soil. We must rid the world not only of terrorism, but of the humanitarian crisis crippling the region. These innocent children are living in shambles because of ISIS.  After the haunting trip to the refugee camp, I had the chance to visit with US troops stationed in Iraq. I've been calling for airstrikes for months, and the United States military is now on the offensive. Right now, airstrikes are our best option in the fight against ISIS. While many folks are understandably hesitant to get involved in the Middle East again, after seeing the situation on the ground in person, I'm more convinced than ever that we are doing the right thing. We need to continue our airstrikes and expand them to push back ISIS. We must support vetted rebel groups on the ground. And after witnessing the humanitarian crisis there, I've called for a no-fly zone over Syria. We all wish the world were a better place and it wasn't necessary for us to fight again. But there is no other country on earth that can stand up to the evil we are facing. If we don't do it, nobody will. And that means the bad guys win. Americans have never accepted that outcome, and we aren't about to start now.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://kinzinger.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=399045"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9982918854802847, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}