Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee Calls for Turkey to Adhere to a No-Fly Zone in Northern Syria to Stop the Bloodshed and Killing of Women and Children
Style Magazine Newswire | 10/15/2019, 5:41 p.m.
Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, a senior member of the House Committees on Judiciary, Homeland Security, and Budget, issued this statement following reports of increased violence and bloodshed by Turkey following the withdrawal of American troops from Northern Syria:
“I am appalled by the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Northern Syria. I lament that it occurred without consultation of America’s experts, either in Congress or at the Pentagon, or that it occurred without the consult of our allies in the region. The act appears to have occurred after a call between the President and Turkish President Recep Erdogan. The departure of American troops, discussed on the call, has set off a torrent of killing, bloodletting and wholesale chaos. This represents a direct danger to America’s national security.
“The carnage being visited on that region of the world is horrific, and a direct function of the vacuum left after the United States withdrew. Kurds are facing ethnic cleansing. Children are being indiscriminately killed. The group Doctors without Borders has suspended most aid operations in northeast Syria because airstrikes and shelling have made impossible the delivery of aid. The offensive by Turkey has already displaced 160,000 children. News reports today suggest that the Vice President and the Secretary of State are headed to the region, in order to try to stem the tide of the bloodshed in the area. While these efforts are to be lauded, after-the-fact attempts to address mass chaos and remedy problems which were entirely foreseeable before withdrawing troops are considerably less helpful and fall short, than had the administration proceeded down this path with a plan in-tact. I am a champion for peace and while I strive to ensure that peace will always and ultimately carry the day, it is critical that the United States appropriately place the right military teams in strategic locations, in consultation with guidelines promulgated by the Department of Defense to help reestablish peace in the region.
“Before it happened I, like many other learned students of the area, warned that it was a shocking betrayal to our Kurdish allies who had helped defeat ISIS. ISIS is now on the loose. Several reports over the weekend have revealed the extent of the chaos following America’s retreat from this area. Reports suggests that hundreds of ISIS prisoners have escaped from the Ain Issa detention facility and according to the New York Times, the U.S. Military failed to secure scores of “high-value detainees before its forces departed.” I take no solace in my prescience. I also warned that our withdrawal from the area could make these same allies vulnerable to outside attack, like what is now occurring at the hands of Turkey, our NATO ally. I call for an immediate ceasefire in the area. I further demand an immediate no-fly zone to prevent Turkey from wreaking any further havoc, preventing any further mayhem and bloodshed, and to protect against further loss of life.”