releases: https://www.mccain.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/floor-statements?ContentRecord_id=68e65477-bd86-4a5b-8380-8c583f1ba8dc
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| https://www.mccain.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/floor-statements?ContentRecord_id=68e65477-bd86-4a5b-8380-8c583f1ba8dc | FLOOR STATEMENT BY SASC CHAIRMAN JOHN McCAIN ON FOREIGN POLICY IN 2015 | 2015-12-17 | 2015 | 2015-12 | Republican | House | AZ | John McCain | M000303 | www.mccain.senate.gov | legacy | Washington, D.C. U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ), Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, delivered the following statement on the Senate floor today on foreign policy in 2015: Madam President: Seventy years ago, a group of American leaders forged the rules-based international order out of the ashes of World War II. Those that were there recalled that they were present at the creation. We may well look back at 2015 and realize we were present at the unraveling. At the beginning of this year, President Obama was still committed to degrading and ultimately destroying ISIL. He had warned that if left unchecked, [ISIL] could pose a growing threat beyond [the Middle East] - including to the United States. And in 2015 thats exactly happened in Paris and San Bernardino. More than one year into the campaign against ISIL, it is impossible to assert that ISIL is losing and that we are winning, and if you are not winning in this kind of warfare, you are losing. Stalemate is not success. This year the Senate Armed Services Committee held several hearings specifically focused on the threat of ISIL, including three with Secretary of Defense Ash Carter. We heard about nine lines of effort. We heard about 3 Rs. But we never heard a single plausible theory of success. ISIL has lost some territory on the margin, but has consolidated control of its core territories and expanded its control in Syria. It continues to dominate Sunni Arab areas in both Iraq and Syria. It maintains control of key Iraqi cities like Mosul, Fallujah, and Ramadi, and efforts to retake those territories appear to have stalled entirely. Meanwhile, ISIL is expanding globally. On Tuesday, General John Campbell, commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan told the Associated Press that ISIL is seeking to establish a regional base in eastern Afghanistan as it attracts more followers and foreign fighters. In Libya, the Wall Street Journal reports that ISIL has expanded in Libya and established a new base close to Europe where it can generate oil revenue and plot terror attacks. Since February, ISIL has grown from 200 eager fighters to a roughly 5,000-strong contingent which includes administrators and financiers. ISIL is also operating in Lebanon, Yemen, and Egypt. And other radical Islamist groups like Boko Haram in Nigeria and al-Shabaab in Somalia have pledged allegiance to ISIL. This appearance of success only enhances ISILs ability to radicalize, recruit, and grow. To be sure, there has been some progress, as I recently saw on a visit to Iraq. The recent operation to retake Sinjar was important. Iraqi forces are closing in on Ramadi, though they still have not finished the job. And our counterterrorism operations are taking a lot of ISIL fighters off the battlefield in Iraq and Syria. All of this represents tactical progress. And it is a testament to our civilian and military leaders, as well as thousands of U.S. troops helping to take the fight to ISIL every day. However, significant challenges remain. As a direct result of President Obamas decision to withdraw all U.S. forces from Iraq and squander hard-won American influence, the Iraqi government is weak and beholden to Iran. There was perhaps no more vivid example of this than when it was reported that Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi turned down Secretary of Defense Ash Carters offer of new military assistance, including the use of Apache helicopters and special operations forces to help recapture Ramadi. I met with Prime Minister Abadi in Iraq. He is a good man, and he knows that he needs this help. But because of the dominating influence of Iran and Shia militias in Iraq, he turned it down anyway. General McFarland, who is leading the fight against ISIL, reacted grimly saying, This is a very complex environment. It is kind of hard to inflict support on somebody. It also comes as no surprise that the training of Iraqi security forces has been slow, and the building of support for the Sunni tribal forces even slower. ISIL captured Mosul in June 2014. At the end of 2015, ISIL still controls Mosul. And at the current pace, U.S. commanders estimate that ISIL will still control Mosul at the end of 2016. Meanwhile, the Financial Times reports that ISIL is still making $1.5 million a day in oil sales. Worse, Reuters reports that ISIL has made more than $500 million trading oil with significant volumes sold to...guess whothe government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Even as an Oval Office speech and a Pentagon photo-op fail to reassure the American people, this Administration has doubled down on its indecisive approach to ISIL using limited means and indirect ways to achieve aspirational ends on a nonexistent timeline. The Administration now admits that we are war with ISIL, but proceeds at every turn to minimize any American role in fighting and winning that war. America has never waged anything weve called a war and then so profoundly limited our role in the hope that some other force will emerge to win it for us. The Administration says we cannot Americanize the conflict, as if America can truly be at war in a conflict that is not our own. The war against ISIL was Americanized when ISIL-inspired terrorists murdered 14 Americans on our own soil in San Bernardino. This attack should be a wakeup call that ISILs threat to our homeland is real, direct, and growing. Thats why we need a strategy to destroy ISILnot ultimately, as the president said last year, but as quickly as possible. Yet in Syria, there is no plausible strategy to achieve this goal on anywhere near an acceptable timeline. What the administration calls its strategy looks more like a hope. We will not destroy ISIL until Raqqa, the capital of the caliphate, falls. But there is still no ground force that is both willing and able to retake Raqqa, nor is there a realistic prospect of one emerging soon. The Syrian Kurds could take Raqqa but wont, and the Syrian Sunni Arabs want to but cant, partly due to our failure to support them. Meanwhile, the Administration has continued its policy of inaction and indifference that has allowed Bashar Assad to slaughter a quarter of a million people. And when Assad appeared weak, it allowed Vladimir Putin to intervene militarily and protect his murderous regime. And now the results are clear. This was the headline from the Associated Press yesterday: Russian Airstrikes Restore Syrian Military Balance of Power. The AP reports, Weeks of Russian airstrikes in Syria appear to have restored enough momentum to the government side to convince President Bashar Assad's foes and the world community that even if he doesn't win the war he cannot quickly be removed by force. That realization, combined with the growing sense that the world's No. 1 priority is the destruction of the Islamic State group, has led many to acknowledge that however unpalatable his conduct of the war, Assad will have to be tolerated for at least some time further. However unpalatable his conduct of the war This kind of Orwellian understatement not only obscures the truth, but cripples the conscience. Bashar Assads conduct of the war barrel bombschemical weaponsslaughtering women and children has not only killed a quarter of a million people, it is what gave rise to ISIL in the first place, and it is what fuels them still. Unfortunately, Secretary of State John Kerry seems not to understand that fact. While in Moscow searching for common ground with Russia on Syria and Ukraine, Secretary Kerry said that Russia has been a significant contributor to the progress the world has made on Syria. Was Russia making progress when it bombed U.S.-back Syrian forces fighting the Assad regime? Or was that when it took a brief pause from bombing Syrian moderates to indiscriminately drop dumb bombs in ISIL territory in eastern Syria killing untold numbers of civilians? Secretary Kerry then said, The United States and our partners are not seeking so-called regime change. The focus now is not on our differences about what can or cannot be done immediately about Assad. At the beginning of this year, this Administration still believed that Assad must go. But now, as one U.S. official said, The meaning of Assad has to go has evolved. This kind of Orwellian doublespeak has become all too common in this Administration, and it is exactly why our allies and partners around the world are losing confidence in American leadership. Is it any wonder then that 34 Muslim nations formed an alliance to fight terrorism and the United States didnt even know about it? So why has the meaning of Assad has to go evolved? Because this Administration was overpowered, outplayed, and outmatched. This Administration consoled themselves with the mantra of there is no military solution, rather than facing the reality that there is a clear military dimension to a political solution in Syria. That is what Russia and Iran have demonstrated. They have changed the military facts on the ground and created the terms for a political settlement more favorable to their interests. And I believe as a result, the conflict will grind on, ISIL will grow stronger, and the refugees will keep coming. Unfortunately, Americas troubles in 2015 were not contained to Iraq and Syria. Despite conditions on the ground, President Obama elected to withdraw roughly half of U.S. forces from Afghanistan by the end of next year. Once again, the result is clear. As the Associated Press reported this week, Violence in Afghanistan is on the rise, according to a new Pentagon report to Congress that says the Taliban was emboldened by the reduced U.S. military role and can be expected to build momentum from their 2015 attack strategy. The AP report went on to note that the number of effective insurgent attacks rose this year, causing increased casualties among Afghan security forces and that the Talibans resilience has made security fragile in key areas and at risk of deteriorating in others. At the beginning of this year, the Administration was negotiating with Iran with the goal of forcing Iran to give up its nuclear program. Instead, the deal reached merely delayed Irans nuclear program for a period of years. And it granted concession after concession to Iran tens of billions of dollars in sanctions relief, lifting the international arms embargo, allowing development of ballistic missiles and ICBMs, letting Iran inspect itself, and no requirement to resolve longstanding international concerns about the possible military dimensions of Irans nuclear program. For years, the IAEA maintained that effective verification of the nuclear deal depended on resolution of the PMD issue. And the agency consistently raised red flags about Irans refusal to allow United Nations inspectors to interview key scientists and military officers to investigate Irans covert nuclear-weapons program. Earlier this month, an IAEA report concluded that Iran was actively designing a nuclear weapon until 2009, but it could not determine how far Iran had gone toward achieving a bomb because Iran refused to answer several essential questions and appeared to have destroyed potential evidence. But despite this persistent uncertainty, the IAEA voted earlier this week to close its investigation into Irans past nuclear activities, moving Tehran another step closer to large-scale sanctions relief. So as the IAEA complained about the lack of verification and transparency as it related to Irans past covert nuclear program, Secretary Kerry praised the decision to close the investigation so the focus could now be on the nuclear deals enhanced verification and transparency regime. This dangerous naivety is only made worse by the manifest lack of will to punish Iran for violations of its commitments. Iran has now conducted two advanced missile tests since October in violations of United Nations Security Council resolutions. Yet the Administration, nor the international community has been willing to act in order because they fear Iran will walk away from the nuclear deal. U.S. Ambassador the UN Samantha Power even defended this inaction by saying, Discussions are a form of UN action. Based on Irans behavior, I have a feeling there will be many such discussions to come. At the beginning of this year, President Obama said the United States would stand for the principle that large countries dont bully smaller countries and support Ukraines ability to control its own territory. Yet as 2015 draws to a close, over 8,000 people have died since Russias invasion, including 298 innocent people aboard Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 murdered by Vladimir Putins loyal supporters with weapons sent to Ukraine by Putin. Russia remains in firm control of Crimea and continues to destabilize Ukraine. Our military commanders believe Russia is preparing for a renewed offensive in the near future. Yet more than a year-and-a-half since Russia invaded Ukraine, presenting the gravest threat to European security in decades, President Obama remains steadfast in his refusal to give Ukrainians fighting and dying to save their country the defensive weapons they need and deserve. Ukrainians are not asking that American forces do their fighting, but that our nation open once again the arsenal of democracy that has allowed free peoples to defend themselves. President Obamas failure to do so will be to his everlasting shame. In February of this year, China had reclaimed just 400 acres of land in the South China Sea. As 2015 comes to an end, China has now reclaimed more than 3,000 acres, more than all other claimants combined and at an unprecedented pace. China is rapidly militarizing this reclaimed land, building garrisons, harbors, intelligence and surveillance infrastructure, and at least three airstrips that could support military aircraft. With the addition of surface-to-air missiles and radars, these new land features could enable China to declare and enforce an air defense identification zone in the South China Sea, and to hold that vital region at risk. China is incrementally and unilaterally changing the status quo through coercion, intimidation, even force. And nothing the United States has been doing appears to be changing Chinas calculation. And why would it? Back in May, Secretary Carter declared that the United States will fly, sail, and operate wherever international law allows. But it took five embarrassing months of false starts and mixed signals before the U.S. Navy was allowed to conduct a freedom of navigation operation within 12 nautical miles of Chinas manmade land features in the South China Sea. Then as this operation was being reported by every major media outlet in the United States and the Asia-Pacific, Secretary Carter initially refused to confirm the operation had taken place in open testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee. This puzzling display led to confusion not only about what had taken place, but Americas strategic intent. This Administration constantly emphasizes the need to avoid miscalculation. But we only encourage miscalculation when there is a gap between our words and our actions. And it is that gap that China has exploited to assert vast territorial claims, bully its neighbors, destabilize the region, and challenge the freedom of the seas. Yes, we saw too many dark days in 2015. But it didnt have to be this way. And it still within our power to choose a better course. We must never be disheartened or resigned to a world where suffering and evil are always on the ascent. On the contrary, its in our character as Americans to face adversity with hope and optimism. We must see plainly and fully the threats to our values in order to defeat them. And if, as Churchill said, we recover our moral health and martial vigor, and rise again to take our stand for freedom, I have no doubt America will succeed. ### | 1 | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z |