Secretary of State John Kerry gave protracted testimony to the Senate today, dodging multiple questions about President Obama’s new war on ISIS, insisting any real details were “classified” and presenting the war itself as something the entire world was behind.
During the testimony, Kerry also claimed the war had already made great strides, claiming the new Iraqi government was a direct result of the US airstrikes and a “success story” for the conflict.
Questions about the open-ended timeline were basically ignored, with Kerry insisting that the “full destruction and defeat mode” of the war was likely to take years, but that it was something better addressed further down the road.
Kerry also lashed out at Sen. Rand Paul (R – KY) so calling the war unconstitutional, insisting that there was “no legal argument” conceivable that could be made insisting that President Obama didn’t have every right to launch unilateral wars against whomever he wanted to protect the nation. He insisted Sen. Paul “might not like it,” but that there was no argument to be made that Obama needed Congressional permission.
Kerry went on to complain about Paul’s filibusters of nominees and suggest that the administration didn’t feel confident the Senate would even get around to voting on the war because of that, even if they wanted such a vote.
