Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Gaetz) for sponsoring this legislation. Mr. Speaker, there is no legal authority for the U.S. to be involved in the Syrian civil war. There is no authority. Section 5(c) of the War Powers Act does not say, and I am quoting the chairman now, it does not say, ``without authorization.'' That is not the language. The language says, ``specific statutory authorization.'' You either declare war or you have specific statutory authority. Do you know what that 2001 AUMF says? It says those who ``aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001.'' It doesn't say ``ISIS.'' It doesn't say ``Syria.'' It is talking about the events of 2001, as the gentleman from Florida just referenced. It is a quaint idea to say we are going to rely on that 2001 AUMF. I thought they were going to say they were relying on the 2002 AUMF. Either way, neither one works. You don't have authority, and you are going to be there and put U.S. soldiers in harm's way. This is a civil war. One Syrian analyst said this recently: ``Until we see the externals confront each other directly rather than on the Syrian ground, I don't see an actual end to the Syrian conflict.'' Do you know who the externals are? The U.S., the Russians, and Iran. That is the externals, and we have no authority to be one of those externals. The analyst went on to say this is a proxy war. That is what is happening. It is another U.S.-Russia proxy war.…”