Differing sharply with President Barack Obama’s Syria policy, Democratic lawmaker Tulsi Gabbard has teamed up with a Republican and introduced a bipartisan Bill to abandon the US efforts to overthrow the Bashar al-Assad regime and instead focus all energies on destroying ISIS.
The first-ever Hindu member of the US Congress, Gabbard and Republican lawmaker Austin Scott have introduced what they call a legislation to “bring an immediate end to the illegal, counter-productive war to overthrow the Syrian Government of Assad”. “The US is waging two wars in Syria. The first is the war against ISIS and other Islamic extremists, which Congress authorized after the terrorist attack on 9/11. The second war is the illegal war to overthrow the Syrian government of Assad,” Congresswoman Gabbard said in a statement after introducing the Bill barely a week after the Paris attacks this month.
An Iraq War veteran, Gabbard argues that “the war to overthrow Assad is counter-productive because it actually helps ISIS and other Islamic extremists achieve their goal of overthrowing the Syrian government of Assad and taking control of all of Syria which will increase human suffering in the region, exacerbate the refugee crisis, and pose a greater threat to the world. Also, the war to overthrow Assad is illegal because Congress never authorised it.”