Political Quotes

“Thank you, Madam President. Madam President, I rise this afternoon to discuss the recent events in Syria and the United States' response to the crisis. Yesterday I had the opportunity to meet with President Ahmad Jarba of the Syrian National Coalition to hear firsthand about the Assad regime's intolerable violations of international law and human rights norms. I will begin by reviewing the situation as it stands today. More than 3 years since the fighting first began, the conflict in Syria rages on. The fighting has driven more than 2.4 million refugees out of the country and displaced 6.5 million more Syrians inside of Syria itself. The violence is so terrible that the United Nations has stopped estimating the death toll. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, at least 150,000 Syrians have been killed. This conflict has had a disproportionate effect on children in Syria. A Save the Children report indicates that at least 1.2 million children have fled to neighboring countries while about 10,000 have died in the violence. The Assad regime has used every available tactic to terrorize the Syrian people. Some civilians have resorted to eating grass as desperately needed humanitarian and food aid has been withheld from besieged communities. The whir of helicopter blades above portends barrel bomb strikes that we have heard so much about that could easily land on a school, a hospital or an apartment block.…”