Not ‘at war’
The Secretary of State repeatedly neglects using the term “war” when describing the military conflict of the United States against ISIS, explaining why the term “war” is not appropriate to use. Kerry:
What we are doing is engaging in a very significant counterterrorism operation. It’s going to go on for some period of time. If somebody wants to think about it as being a war with ISIL, they can do so, but the fact is it’s a major counterterrorism operation that will have many different moving parts.
The comment generates confusion on Capitol Hill. McCain:
It’s hard to find a response to that. Then what was the president talking about [Wednesday] night?