The House of Representatives rejected a resolution on March 8 that would have required President Joe Biden to withdraw U.S. forces from Syria within 15 days of its enactment.
About 900 U.S. troops remain in Syria, where they have been stationed mainly to fight the ISIS terrorist group.
The tally was 103–321.
Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, expressed opposition to the resolution, which was introduced by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.). Ahead of the vote, McCaul warned that a U.S. troop withdrawal would be “a win for the ISIS terrorists.”
Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), the committee’s ranking Democrat, also objected to the resolution, saying that a withdrawal would be “a premature end” to the U.S. mission in Syria and would threaten U.S. allies and partners, including the Kurds. He also said that a withdrawal would enable an ISIS resurgence.
“Since we have been there, we have seen Americans die. We have seen tens of billions of dollars wasted,” he said.
The 2001 AUMF, or Authorization for the Use of Military Force, allowed U.S. forces to combat those responsible for 9/11.
“What is hilarious about the 2001 AUMF that the neoconservatives wave around like some permission slip for every neoconservative fantasy of turning an Arabian desert into a Jeffersonian democracy is that very 2001 AUMF would justify attacking the people that we’re fighting against and the people we’re funding because both have ties to Al Qaeda,” Gaetz said.
He rebutted those who said that withdrawing troops would allow for the reemergence of ISIS.
“I do not believe what stands between a caliphate and not-a-caliphate are the 900 Americans who have been sent to this hellscape with no definition of victory, no clear objective, and purely existing as a vestige to the regime-change foreign policy of multiple former presidents,” he said.
“Congress has never authorized the use of military force in Syria. The United States is currently not in a war with or against Syria, so why are we conducting dangerous military operations there? President Biden must remove all U.S. Armed Forces from Syria. America First means actually putting the people of our country first—not the interests of the military-industrial complex.”
Then-Presient Donald Trump withdrew U.S. troops from northeastern Syria in October 2019 in what was criticized as a betrayal to Kurdish allies. Following the withdrawal, Turkey invaded northeastern Syria to go after the Kurds.
