House votes down Gaetz bill to withdraw troops from Syria

WASHINGTON — The House voted 103-321 on Wednesday against pulling U.S. troops out of Syria, rejecting a war powers resolution to do so introduced by Rep. Matt Gaetz.

The Republican from Florida used expedited procedures laid out under the War Powers Act to force a floor vote on the bill, which would have required the Biden administration to withdraw the approximately 900 troops stationed in Syria within six months. Democrats from the Congressional Progressive Caucus joined libertarian and America First-aligned Republicans in rallying behind the Gaetz resolution but fell short of the votes needed to pass it amid opposition from leaders in both parties.

“Congress has never authorized the use of military force in Syria,” Gaetz said in a statement upon introducing the bill last month. “The United States is currently not in a war with or against Syria, so why are we conducting dangerous military operations there? President [Joe] Biden must remove all U.S. armed forces from Syria.”

The Defense Department first deployed troops to Syria to fight the Islamic State group in 2014. That conflict also saw the return of U.S. forces to Iraq. U.S. troops have remained stationed in both countries under a 2001 military authorization, which Congress passed in the wake of the 9/11 attacks to target al-Qaida in Afghanistan.

Four presidents have since used the 2001 military authorization to justify at least 41 military operations in at least 19 countries across the globe.

Since the territorial defeat of the so-called ISIS caliphate, the U.S. Defense Department has kept troops stationed in both Syria and Iraq. In Syria, they remain split in the northeast — where they aid the Kurdish-majority administration’s fight against ISIS sleeper cells — and the southeast garrison of al-Tanf, which has become a frequent target of attack for Iran-backed militias.

House Foreign Affairs Chairman Mike McCaul, R-Fla., and ranking member Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., both argued the U.S. troop presence in Syria is legal under the 2001 AUMF and urged their colleagues to vote against the Gaetz resolution.

“Even though ISIS no longer controls significant territory, there are still tens of thousands of hardened terrorist fighters in Iraq and Syria who are hellbent on establishing their terror state,” McCaul argued ahead of the vote.

House lawmakers also voted down 155-273 a National Defense Authorization Act amendment last year from Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., that would have required Biden to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria if Congress does not pass an authorization specifically for that mission. (The House rejected a similar Bowman amendment in 2021.)

Former President Donald Trump partially withdrew U.S. troops from the Syrian-Turkish border in 2019, paving the way for Ankara to launch a ground offensive against Kurdish forces in northeast Syria. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has shown interest in launching another offensive into northeast Syria, repeatedly issuing threats until the devastating earthquake last month that killed thousands in both countries.

But Gaetz indicated he was not worried that pulling U.S. troops out of the area would greenlight another Turkish offensive against the Syrian Kurds.

“I don’t believe that our presence is deterring much of anything,” Gaetz told Defense News last week. “I think that it’s a risk of us escalating the conflict.”

Gaetz’s office noted he filed the bill after U.S. Central Command, which oversees Middle East military operations, disclosed that four service members were wounded in a raid against a senior ISIS official, Hamza al-Homsi.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley visited U.S. forces stationed in Syria on Saturday. Milley’s trip prompted protest from both the Syrian Foreign Affairs Ministry in Damascus and Gaetz, who accused him of trying to “justify America’s continued involvement in a Middle Eastern civil war.”

Separately on Tuesday, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin visited Iraq, where he vowed that U.S. troops would remain in the country at the invitation of Baghdad.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee also advanced legislation on Wednesday that would repeal the 1991 and 2002 Iraq War authorizations. However, those repeals would not result in the removal of U.S. troops from Iraq, since they are stationed there under the 2001 authorization.

Bryant Harris is the Congress reporter for Defense News. He has covered U.S. foreign policy, national security, international affairs and politics in Washington since 2014. He has also written for Foreign Policy, Al-Monitor, Al Jazeera English and IPS News.

华盛顿——周三，众议院以 103 票赞成、321 票反对的投票结果否决了从叙利亚撤出美军的决议，该决议由众议员马特·盖茨提出。

这位来自佛罗里达州的共和党议员利用《战争权力法》规定的快速程序，迫使国会就一项法案进行全体投票。该法案要求拜登政府在六个月内撤出驻扎在叙利亚的约900名美军。国会进步党团的民主党人与自由意志主义者和“美国优先”阵营的共和党人一道，支持盖茨提出的这项决议，但由于两党领导人的反对，最终未能获得通过所需的票数。

盖茨上个月在提出该法案时发表声明称：“国会从未授权在叙利亚使用武力。美国目前既没有与叙利亚交战，也没有与叙利亚对抗，那么我们为什么要在那里进行危险的军事行动？拜登总统必须将所有美军撤出叙利亚。”

美国国防部于2014年首次向叙利亚部署军队，打击伊斯兰国组织。那场冲突也导致美军重返伊拉克。根据2001年国会在9·11事件后通过的军事授权，美军一直驻扎在这两个国家，旨在打击阿富汗境内的基地组织。

自 2001 年以来，已有四位总统利用该军事授权在全球至少 19 个国家开展了至少 41 次军事行动。

自所谓“伊斯兰国”哈里发政权被彻底击败以来，美国国防部一直保持着在叙利亚和伊拉克的驻军。在叙利亚，美军仍然分散在东北部（协助库尔德人占多数的叙利亚政府打击“伊斯兰国”潜伏小组）和东南部的坦夫驻军区（该驻军区已成为伊朗支持的民兵组织的频繁袭击目标）。

众议院外交事务委员会主席、佛罗里达州共和党众议员迈克·麦考尔和资深成员、纽约州民主党众议员格雷戈里·米克斯都认为，根据 2001 年《授权使用武力法案》，美国在叙利亚的驻军是合法的，并敦促他们的同事投票反对盖茨决议。

“尽管伊斯兰国不再控制大片领土，但伊拉克和叙利亚仍有数万名顽固的恐怖分子，他们一心想要建立自己的恐怖国家，”麦考尔在投票前辩称。

去年，众议院以155票赞成、273票反对否决了纽约州众议员贾马尔·鲍曼提出的《国防授权法案》修正案。该修正案要求，如果国会没有通过专门针对叙利亚行动的授权法案，拜登必须从叙利亚撤军。（众议院在2021年也否决了鲍曼提出的类似修正案。）

2019年，美国总统唐纳德·特朗普从叙利亚-土耳其边境部分撤军，为安卡拉对叙利亚东北部的库尔德武装发动地面进攻铺平了道路。土耳其总统雷杰普·塔伊普·埃尔多安一直有意再次对叙利亚东北部发动攻势，并多次发出威胁，直到上个月造成两国数千人死亡的毁灭性地震发生。

但盖茨表示，他并不担心从该地区撤出美军会为土耳其再次对叙利亚库尔德人发动进攻开绿灯。

盖茨上周告诉《防务新闻》：“我不认为我们的存在能起到多大的威慑作用。我认为这反而有可能使冲突升级。”

盖茨的办公室指出，他提交该法案是因为负责中东军事行动的美国中央司令部披露，在一次针对ISIS高级官员哈姆扎·霍姆西的突袭中，有四名军人受伤。

美国参谋长联席会议主席马克·米利将军周六访问了驻叙利亚的美军。米利的访问引发了叙利亚外交部和叙利亚总理盖茨的抗议，盖茨指责他试图“为美国继续卷入中东内战寻找正当理由”。

周二，美国国防部长劳埃德·奥斯汀访问了伊拉克，并承诺应巴格达方面的邀请，美军将继续留在伊拉克。

参议院外交关系委员会周三还推进了一项法案，该法案将废除1991年和2002年的伊拉克战争授权。然而，由于美军是根据2001年的授权驻扎在伊拉克的，因此废除这些授权并不会导致美军撤出伊拉克。

布莱恩特·哈里斯是《防务新闻》的国会记者。自2014年以来，他一直在华盛顿报道美国外交政策、国家安全、国际事务和政治。他还曾为《外交政策》、《Al-Monitor》、《半岛电视台英语频道》和IPS新闻撰稿。