Free Republic

A day after Secretary of State John Kerry cautioned against "war fever," administration officials on Friday said the U.S. is indeed waging a war against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS, otherwise known as ISIL). However, the administration is still trying to draw a distinction between this new "war" and the previous war the U.S. waged in Iraq, which included putting American troops on the ground in Iraq for combat operations. "The United States is at war with ISIL in the same way that we are at war with al Qaeda and its al Qaeda affiliates all around...

The Obama administration said for the first time Friday that the United States is “at war” with ISIS militants. Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary, used the language at least three times during his daily briefing with reporters. “The U.S. is at war with ISIL in the same way the U.S. is at war with al Qaeda,” he said, using an alternate acronym for the group. Minutes earlier, a Pentagon spokesman, Rear Adm. John Kirby, used similar terminology. “This is not the Iraq war of 2002,” he told reporters. “But, make no mistake, we know we are at war...