Madam President, I wish to speak about the crisis in Syria and the role that one company in one nation is playing in perpetuating the strife. Every day Syria descends deeper into chaos and civil war. Since March 2011, more than 100,000 Syrians have been killed, an estimated 5 million have been internally displaced, and at least 1.6 million have fled their war-torn land. By the end of 2013, half of Syria's population may have left their homes. The pressure on neighboring countries, Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq, is only increasing. Beyond the refugee crisis, the resulting chaos threatens unprecedented violence and instability for all of Syria's neighbors. As Syria's conflict grows increasingly radical, its borders are increasably insecure. In August 2011, now nearly 2 years ago, President Obama declared that Syria's dictator, Bashar Asad, had lost all legitimacy and ``must go.'' At the time of that statement, the number of Syrians butchered by the Asad regime numbered a then-shocking 6,000. There were frequent grim comparisons to Bashar al-Asad's father Hafez, who shelled Hama for days in 1982, killing perhaps 20,000. Now, today we see a nation on a path to destruction and Hafez Asad's 20,000 dead is just a fraction of the number his son has killed. America must take seriously its commitment to doing what it can to bring an end to the Asad regime. We must not tolerate the empowerment of forces antithetical to our interests.…
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