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Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Schiff Statement on Decision to Send U.S. Special Operations Forces to Syria

Washington, DC, October 30, 2015

Today, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), the Ranking Member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, released the following statement:

"The Administration's decision to deploy approximately 50 special operations forces to Northern Syria represents a serious new commitment in the fight against ISIS and has the potential of escalating America's role in the war.  Combined with the dispatch of additional A-10 and F-15 fighters to Incirlik, continued resupply of vetted anti-ISIS forces and a renewed push to engage Turkey on a plan to clear ISIS from areas along the Syrian-Turkish border, these moves may result in new gains against the terrorist army that has brutalized a huge swath of Syria and Iraq. 

"The use of U.S. troops to better enable Syrian Kurdish and Arab forces to cast out ISIS has been necessitated by the confluence of several factors, including the entry of Russia into the war, some improvements in the recent performance of U.S.-backed groups, and the inability to defeat ISIS without further action.  Nonetheless, it poses real risks to American personnel. In order to be fully effective in advising and assisting anti-ISIS efforts, special operators will need to be close to the fighting even if not part of a combat mission. Moreover, to the degree we engage in special operations like that against Abu Sayyef some months ago, these operations will need to be of a sufficient tempo to fully exploit and act on newly acquired intelligence, thereby putting more Americans at grave risk.

"No provision of American assistance or deployment of special operators, however, can eradicate ISIS unless our military efforts are twinned with an orderly transition in Syria from the Assad dictatorship to a new regime that is committed to safeguarding all of the Syrian people.  Notwithstanding the efforts by Moscow and Tehran to prop up their ally in Damascus, Assad must go in order for ISIS to be defeated, Syria to remain unified, and for the humanitarian crisis to end. As long as he remains in power, the jihad will continue to draw in disaffected Syrians and young Muslims from the rest of the Middle East and elsewhere. 

"Since the beginning of the crisis in 2011, I have opposed the commitment of American ground forces in a sustained combat role in either Syria or Iraq. While a resolution of the Syrian war requires the removal of Assad and the incorporation of the Sunnis into a coalition government, so too does an end to ISIS in Iraq require the Iraqi government to allow meaningful participation of the Sunnis in governance and its military.  Until these underlying political problems are resolved, American troops can help to win the battles but they will not stay won. 

"I continue to believe that we must not commit ground combat forces to the fight in Syria or Iraq and urge the Administration to work closely with Congress to ensure that our strategy in the war against ISIS has the support of Congress and the American people. That support should be properly manifested in a new AUMF, rather than continued reliance on the outdated authorization that was passed in the days following the September 11 attacks in New York and Washington.”