{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://cooper.house.gov//media-center/press-releases/cooper-opposes-syria-amendment", "Cooper Opposes Syria Amendment", "2014-09-17", "2014", "2014-09", "Democrat", "House", "TN", "Jim Cooper", "C000754", "cooper.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTON \u2013 U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper today voted against legislation that would extend resources to forces in Syria. A member of the House Armed Services Committee, Cooper entered a statement into the Congressional Record. In the statement, Cooper outlined seven reasons for his vote. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Mr. Chairman, I rise to oppose the Amendment to H.J. Res. 124, the Continuing Resolution, that supports training and equipping the so-called Syrian Opposition. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0After attending briefings on the President\u2019s proposal, I do not believe that this Amendment has a reasonable chance of achieving his goals. Worse, it could embroil America in another endless war. I hate ISIL and the other terrorist organizations that are plaguing Syria, Iraq and eventually the U.S.; the question is whether this Amendment will \u201cdegrade and destroy\u201d them, to use the President\u2019s words. I do not fault President Obama\u2019s intent; I doubt this particular Amendment will work. Most obviously, it expires in 90 days, according to the very terms of the CR. And even if, under authority granted outside of this Amendment, an air strike killed ISIL\u2019s leader, it would not stop ISIL. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0First, remember the budgetary context of this train-and-equip mission. Remember that military spending cuts called \u201csequestration\u201d will last another seven years under current law. The readiness of our military is already threatened by these cuts. Necessary long-term investments in future weapons systems are being shortchanged. Until advocates of this train-and-equip mission are willing to fully fund the U.S. military and stop sequestration, they have no business adding extra responsibilities. America\u2019s credit-card hawks must not continue to hollow out our military while pursuing questionable foreign ventures. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Second, the Syrian Opposition is not like the Peshmerga. It is a number of disorganized, unreliable and shifting groups that face three hostile armies at once within Syria itself: Assad\u2019s army, ISIL, and the Al-Nusra Front. Each of these hostile armies has demonstrated the ability to conduct advanced military operations. They are years ahead of any possible effective counter-attack by the Syrian Opposition, unless they start fighting each other or Assad\u2019s entire military defects. We are not even sure that the people we train would remain loyal. Although the Amendment talks about vetting Syrian Opposition forces, it acknowledges that there will be \u201cgreen-on-blue\u201d violence against us. The Amendment also anticipates that some of the weapons we supply to the Opposition will be given or sold to ISIL. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Third, we are entering a series of civil wars. They are notoriously difficult to stop without years of bloodshed. The idea that U.S. Army training, guns, and bullets will facilitate a negotiated Syrian settlement is highly implausible. Another factor is the 1,400-year-old Sunni-Shia schism, giving our Muslim allies their own religious agendas. They make excuses for their failure to commit their own forces in their own backyards, even when their inaction floods their nations with refugees. Several of these nations have large militaries with advanced weaponry, which they refuse to use except for very limited, anonymous airstrikes. They want U.S. soldiers and airmen to do their dirty work. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Fourth, ISIL was created by wealthy Sunnis in nations like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Kuwait who wanted an attack dog, a proxy army, to fight the Shia threat posed by Iran, Syria, Hamas, and Hezbollah. They got more than they bargained for: a pit bull that might turn against its masters. Nevertheless, they are not muzzling ISIL, or even yanking its leash. How does ISIL continue to get its funding? Aside from rape, pillage, kidnapping, and taxing infidels, it is known for its slick corporate appeals, even an annual report on its atrocities. Have the Sunni nations punished ISIL\u2019s benefactors, refused to purchase ISIL\u2019s oil, or taken other measures to cut off its funding? No. In the case of Saudi Arabia, they offer us unused training bases for no more than 10,000 of the Syrian opposition. That is far from enough. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Fifth, how many times must the U.S. try to rebuild Muslim nations? We\u2019ve tried for years, often just inflaming them. Syria will be the eighth Muslim nation we have tried to repair in the last three decades: Kuwait, Bosnia, Kosovo, Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Yemen. In most cases, we have not succeeded. The U.S. military is ill-suited for nation-building. As General Bob Scales pointed out in the Wall Street Journal recently, the Pentagon has trouble dealing with today\u2019s asymmetric wars. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Sixth, ask yourself what your reaction will be if an American airman\u2014God forbid\u2014is captured and beheaded on live television. Will this Amendment, that so carefully denies authorizing military force, suddenly become the prelude to American \u201cboots on the ground\u201d as Gen. Martin Dempsey has already predicted? And who believes that our trainers and equippers\u2014and special forces and intelligence officers\u2014are not already \u201cboots on the ground\u201d? The language of the Amendment is surreal: it contains no \u201cauthorization for the introduction of United States Armed Forces into hostilities or into situations wherein hostilities are clearly indicated by the circumstances.\u201d Unless our military operates entirely outside of Syria or northern Iraq, they are in imminent danger. And if they are training in Saudi Arabia, they will be working in a nation that beheads more people for minor crimes than ISIL could dream of. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Lastly, is there a better way to degrade and destroy ISIL? Americans, with our wonderful optimism that all problems have a quick solution, have a lot to learn about the nature of the enemies we face. Unfortunately for us, our enemies do not measure action by the clock, but by the calendar. They outwait or outlast us. They use social media against us, to dare America to fight or to recruit the West\u2019s disaffected youth with dreams of martyrdom. They will laugh that this Amendment lasts only 90 days, particularly when other sections of the CR extend much longer. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0America needs to understand the threats we face from radical jihadists and to fully fund effective strategies for dealing with them. Sadly, this Amendment does neither. Therefore, I oppose it.", 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": ["http://cooper.house.gov//media-center/press-releases/cooper-opposes-syria-amendment"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.7371068932116032, "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"}