Formatting necessary for an accurate reading of this text may be shown by tags (e.g., <DELETED> or <BOLD>) or may be missing from this TXT display. For complete and accurate display of this text, see the PDF.
[Pages S11-S12]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
IRAN
Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, as the Senate convenes this afternoon,
we find our Nation facing two grave and serious choices. One concerns
our unity at home and the future of our Constitution. The other
involves our strength abroad and the security of our homeland. Both
situations demand serious, sober treatment from Congress. Both require
that we put enduring national interests ahead of the factionalism and
short-termism the Founding Fathers warned us about. But, unfortunately,
seriousness has been in short supply lately--in very short supply--from
the determined critics of President Trump, and our Nation, of course,
is worse for it.
Last Thursday, the United States took decisive action to end the
murderous scheming of Iran's chief terrorist. Qasem Soleimani had spent
numerous years masterminding attacks on American servicemembers and our
partners throughout the Middle East and expanding Iran's influence.
Despite sanctions and despite prohibitions by the U.N. Security
Council, he roamed throughout the region with impunity.
His hands bore the blood of more American servicemembers than anyone
else alive. Hundreds of American families have buried loved ones
because of him. Veterans have learned to live with permanent injuries
inflicted by his terrorists. In Iraq, Syria, and beyond, the
[[Page S12]]
entire region felt the effects of his evil tactics.
We should welcome his death and its complication of Tehran's
terrorism-industrial complex, but we must remain vigilant and soberly
prepared for even further aggression.
It is completely appropriate that this decision would generate
interest and questions from this body. We can and we should learn more
about the intelligence and thinking that led to this operation and the
plan to defend American personnel and interests in the wake of it.
I am glad the administration will hold an all-Senators briefing on
Wednesday. It will be led by Secretary of Defense Esper, Chairman of
the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Milley, Secretary of State Pompeo,
and CIA Director Haspel.
Unfortunately, in this toxic political environment, some of our
colleagues rushed to blame our own government before even knowing the
facts, rushed to split hairs about intelligence before being briefed on
it, and rushed to downplay Soleimani's evil while presenting our own
President as the villain.
Soon after the news broke, one of our distinguished colleagues made a
public statement that rightly called Soleimani a ``murderer'' and then,
amazingly, walked that message back when the far left objected to the
factual statement. Since then, I believe all of her criticism has been
directed at our own President.
Another of our Democratic colleagues has been thinking out loud about
Middle East policy on social media. Mere days before President Trump's
decision, this Senator tore into the White House for what he described
as weakness and inaction. ``No one fears us'' he complained. ``Trump
has rendered America impotent in the Middle East.'' But since the
strike, he has done a complete 180. That same Senator has harshly
criticized our own President for getting tough. Ludicrously, he and
others on the left have accused the administration of committing an
illegal act and equated the removal of this terrorist leader with a
foreign power assassinating our own Secretary of Defense.
Here is what one expert had to say about it. Jeh Johnson, President
Obama's own former Pentagon general counsel and Secretary of Homeland
Security, said:
If you believe everything that our government is saying
about General Soleimani, he was a lawful military objective,
and the president, under his constitutional authority as
commander in chief, had ample domestic legal authority to
take him out without--
Without--
an additional congressional authorization. Whether he was a
terrorist or a general in a military force that was engaged
in armed attacks against our people, he was a lawful military
objective.
That was the former Secretary of Homeland Security in the Obama
administration, Jeh Johnson, an expert on these things.
Our former colleague, Joe Lieberman, who ran for Vice President on
the Democratic ticket in 2000, wrote this morning: ``In their uniformly
skeptical or negative reactions to Soleimani's death, Democrats are . .
. creating the risk that the U.S. will be seen as acting and speaking
with less authority abroad at this important time.'' That is how a
former Democratic Senator sees it.
The Senate is supposed to be the Chamber where overheated partisan
passions give way to sober judgment. Can we not at least wait until we
know the facts? Can we not maintain a shred--just a shred--of national
unity for 5 minutes--for 5 minutes--before deepening the partisan
trenches?
Must Democrats' distaste for this President dominate every thought
they express and every decision they make? Is that really the
seriousness that this situation deserves?
The full Senate will be briefed on Wednesday. I expect the committees
of oversight will also conduct hearings and that the Senators will have
plenty of opportunities to discuss our interests and policies in the
region.
I urge my colleagues to bring a full awareness of the facts,
mindfulness of the long history of Iran's aggression toward the United
States and its allies, and a sober understanding of the threat Iran
continues to pose.
Could we at least remember we are all Americans first, and we are all
in this together?
____________________