"The suffering of the Syrian people has been so great and has been weighing heavily upon my heart for a long time," Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-HI, told CBN News. 

As an Iraq war veteran, Rep. Gabbard voluntarily deployed twice to the Middle East, experiences that gave her the courage to take a secret trip to some of Syria's most damaged cities. 

"I wanted to go there personally," said Rep. Gabbard. "I wanted to express in some small minute way the love and the care and the aloha spirit that the people of Hawaii share with the Syrian people, that the people of our country have for the Syrian people."

But since returning home, Rep. Gabbard has had a difficult time sharing what she witnessed overseas amidst intense scrutiny from colleagues in both parties. 

They want to know who paid for the trip, although she insists the House Ethics Committee approved it, and why she met with Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.

"It was important to take the meeting with President Assad because whether people like it or not he is the president of Syria, any possibility for negotiations to occur, any possibility for a pathway to peace is going to have to include a conversation with him," said Gabbard. 

Fellow lawmakers disagree, saying they are "disgusted" by the meeting with a leader who's responsible for thousands of deaths of his own people. 

While Rep. Gabbard told CBN News she had not originally planned to speak with Assad, she wasn't going to pass on the opportunity.

"We talked about how we collectively try to bring stability back to Syria, how refugees who have left Syria will be able to return home, we talked about the history of Syria as a pluralistic society," said Gabbard. (Screengrab via CBN News)

Rep. Gabbard thinks the United States should focus on eliminating ISIS and al Qaeda, not President Assad. 

"We've got to end these destructive regime change war policies and take a stand for peace," she declared.

A Democrat, she criticized the Obama administration's strategy of arming rebel groups. 

"Most people are not aware of the fact that really since 2011 our government has quietly been providing weapons, money, intelligence and other types of support both directly and indirectly to armed militant groups who are working with and allied with terrorist groups like al Qaeda in this effort to overthrow the Syrian government," Rep. Gabbard told CBN News. 

Gabbard introduced the bipartisan Stop Arming Terrorists Act and was the first democratic House member to meet with then President-elect Donald Trump about the Syrian conflict. 

"I talked with him about the need for us to stop arming and supporting those working with terrorist groups in Syria," Gabbard said. "[and] The need for us to end this regime change war that Congress has never approved, and that is counterproductive because it is actually working to strengthen groups like al Qaeda and ISIS who we are supposed to be focusing on defeating." (Screengrab via CBN News)

But she calls his ban on refugees unacceptable. 

"We should as a country do what it takes to be able to help those get out of the situation where they're experiencing a genocide and that's where our refugee policy can and should be focused, to help those that are suffering, to help those who are the direct targets of the genocide that is being executed by groups like ISIS and al Qaeda."

Syria is home to some of the oldest churches in the world, and its population was about 10 percent Christian before the war. But the country that's a part of the "cradle of Christianity" is in danger of losing its Christian population because of extremists trying to drive them out. 

"Syria for Christians is home," Reverend Harout, who's church is in Syria, told CBN News. "It's not the time to leave, it's time to stay." 

Reverend Harout's church was bombed four times, but through it all they've continued to rebuild and keep both the school and church operating to serve as a refuge for the whole community, including Muslims.

"Persecution is caused by the militant factors, the militant groups, they are targeting Christians so that they will be going out and they will be fleeing the country." Says Reverend Harout. 

While in Aleppo, Rep. Gabbard met with another priest determined to stay even though he says Syrian rebels blew up his more than 150-year-old church. 

"They thought that the Church is the building, but the Church was never the building, the Church is the community. And we know that we are called to be the salt of the world and light of the world, and we know that we have mission in this country," Rev. Ibrahim Nseir of the Arab Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Aleppo told Rep. Gabbard.
According to the priest, the Syrian government has given them resources to rebuild the church. 

CBN News international correspondent Gary Lane has visited Syria a few times and spoken to Christians who prefer Assad over the extremists because they feel more protected under the Assad regime. 

"Syrian Christians won't speak publicly about how they feel about the Assad regime because they fear retribution, but privately they'll tell you that they fared pretty well under Assad; they've been free to worship in their churches without hindrance." said Lane. "What they're really concerned about is another government that will come into power that will be similar to the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt where they will have no rights and they will be attacked."

Before the war, many Muslims and Christians lived peacefully in the country. Despite ongoing attempts from extremist groups to purge Syria of its Christians, those who remain are determined to protect Syria's pluralistic society. 

"It's something important to the Syrian people that their country remain one that is a pluralistic secular society and frankly one that they hope will be able to continue to be a model for countries around the Middle East that don't have that freedom of religion," Gabbard said.

Rep. Gabbard says despite all the destruction she saw, the people of Syria give her great hope for the country's future.

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