The Friends Committee on National Legislation condemns the Trump administration’s airstrikes in Syria, and calls on Congress to urgently intervene against the Trump administration’s unlawful, reckless widening of the war in Syria.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Kate Gould
kate@fcnl.org
202-547-6000
Kate Gould, FCNL’s Legislative Representative for Middle East Policy, made the following statement:
“By launching more than 50 Tomahawk missiles against Syrian regime targets, the Trump administration has set the United States on another deadly, reckless and lawless war path. While the justification used by the administration and some in Congress for this unlawful escalation is the recent ghastly chemical weapons attack, in fact these latest airstrikes will only delay the day for a political solution that ends the killing, and the day that perpetrators of the attack are brought to justice.
Congress must stop Trump’s illegal war in Syria. The Senate should stay in session and the House should return from recess to demand a vote on the Authorization for Use of Military Force before any further military action is taken. Forcing a robust debate in Congress would put speed bumps on the Trump administration’s path toward endless war in Syria. FCNL calls on Congress to vote against such an authorization and to press the administration to advance a political settlement to the Syrian crisis.
As demonstrated by the 2013 chemical weapons agreement, when the international community has the political will, there is a way for diplomacy to succeed. That agreement did what no Tomahawk missile ever can: peacefully dismantle huge stockpiles of chemical weapons. Russian and Iranian influence was crucial in pressing the Assad regime to adhere to the agreement at that time, and leveraging that influence going forward should be the highest priority for the United States in preventing more chemical weapons attacks and ending the killing. Additionally, the U.S. should fully support ongoing efforts by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to fully investigate the recent chemical weapons attack as the first step to ensuring the perpetrators of the attack are held accountable.
Often forgotten in the conventional Beltway narrative is that the U.S. has military intervened in Syria for years: backing armed extremist groups directly or via Gulf countries, sending weaponry, and dropping bombs on Syria, killing scores of civilians. U.S. military intervention has only added fuel to the fire.
While the White House is escalating the destruction of Syria, FCNL’s nationwide network will intensify its advocacy efforts to urge that U.S. policymakers oppose military intervention in Syria, support U.S. resettlement of refugees, fully fund humanitarian relief in Syria and throughout the region, and advance a diplomatic solution that will finally end the slaughter of Syrians.”
The Friends Committee on National Legislation, the oldest registered religious lobby in Washington, is a nonpartisan Quaker lobby in the public interest. FCNL works with a nationwide network of tens of thousands of people from every state in the U.S. to advocate for social and economic justice, peace, and good government.
