Aderholt Statement on House Vote to Arm Syrian Rebels

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 17, 2014

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Congressman Robert Aderholt (AL-04) today announced his vote against authorizing President Obama to raise, train, and equip a rebel army to fight in Syria's Civil War.

"The same question that haunted President Obama a year ago when dealing with the his ‘red-line' statement about Syrian President Assad using chemical weapons persists today – who are the good people in the region to whom we should provide arms, ammunition, and training," said Robert Aderholt. "The simple fact remains that we have made very little progress in identifying viable opposition parties on the ground in Syria.

"The President has not done enough groundwork in the past year to develop a coalition of countries willing to join us in the fight against Assad and now ISIL. Despite a vested interest in seeing the advancement of ISIS halted, no country has committed its troops to this cause and precious few have pledged to help fund the efforts against them.

"We all agree that we need to fight ISIL and I fully support the President's resolve in that regard. However, funding a group of rebels we know very little about is dangerous to say the least. There is still much work that needs to be done before we can risk accidentally arming the wrong folks in Syria. Congress needs more information on the front end of this process; the experiences in Libya prove that."

Congressman Aderholt serves as Chairman of the Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies for the powerful House Appropriations Committee; he is also a member of the Committee's Defense Subcommittee, the Committee's Commerce, Justice, and Science Subcommittee, and the Helsinki Commission.

For more information about Aderholt's work in Congress visit: www.aderholt.house.gov.

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