Rep. Jim Costa Hails Kurds for Role in Fighting ISIS
WASHINGTON DC, United States (Kurdistan 24) – Rep. Jim Costa told Kurdistan 24 of his deep appreciation of the Kurds for their role in joining with the U.S. to fight ISIS.
The Democratic Congressman has represented Central California for nearly two decades, since 2005, and he serves on a key panel, the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
Costa has been a long-time friend of the Kurds. In 2008, he led a Congressional delegation to the Kurdistan Region, which met with senior Kurdish officials, including President Masoud Barzani.
Mike Pence, then a Republican Congressman from Indiana, was a member of the group. Of course, Pence would assume a more important position a decade later, in 2017, when he became Vice President under Donald Trump.
In October 2019, when Trump struck an understanding with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to withdraw U.S. forces from northeast Syria and let Turkey assume responsibility for maintaining security there, Costa was among those who protested strongly.
Read More: Broad opposition to Trump on Syria, including Republicans and evangelical Christians
“The President’s decision to withdraw from Northern Syria and abandon our Kurdish allies is disgraceful and deeply harmful to our national security,” Costa said then.
Indeed, the U.S. outcry against Trump’s attempt to reach a deal with Erdogan over northeast Syria was bipartisan, and it was so strong that Trump was obliged to reverse that decision.
Read More: Americans’ support for Kurds helps explain Trump’s Syrian reversal
Last week, Kurdistan 24 spoke to Costa, and he affirmed, “Kurdistan was a key ally for the United States in defeating ISIS.”
“We must remember the brave Kurdistanis for their willingness to fight, to stand up to ISIS,” he continued, as he denounced ISIS as a terrorist group, akin to other terrorist groups, like Hamas and Hizbollah, which he described as “proxies of Iran.”
Indeed, Costa has played a significant role in promoting a tough U.S. policy toward Tehran. As his website explains, he “supports a strong posture towards Iran.” It notes that “he was a conference committee member negotiating the ‘Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act of 2010,’ which invoked the first significant U.S. sanctions on Iran.”
Costa also spoke strongly in support of Ukraine. “This is an historical time,” he said, and “freedom-loving people are being attacked by dictators around the world.”
Thus, “people who love freedom” must be united to “let the dictators of the world know that we will not allow war crimes to take place, as we’ve seen with President Putin of Russia.”