Congressman Conaway Supports Arming Opposition in Syria

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman K. Michael Conaway (R-Texas) issued the followed statement regarding passage of an amendment to provide funding for arming the Syrian opposition:

“There are no Boy Scouts in Syria.  Nevertheless, I supported providing money for the President’s plan to arm the Syrian opposition.  I did this with very grave reservations.  Under the President’s plan, we will go through a vetting process to find those Syrian opposition members that are not Islamic jihadists and are not part of the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.  We will arm and train those Syrian opposition members who meet these criteria so they can defend their own country.  While we have a long and not always successful history of doing this, it is the best alternative at this time.

“Passage of this amendment does not take the issue of the fight against radical Islam or this fight in Syria off of the table.  If this is not successful, we may have to send American troops into harm’s way.  If we have to do that, I want to be able to say that we have tried every other option.

“This authorization expires on Dec. 11th.  At that time, we will know a lot more than we do today.  We will have our military’s evaluation of if this is working.  My vote in support of arming and training the Syrian opposition will get us to that point.”