Whatever action the United States takes in Syria, the nation is not going to war Secretary of State John Kerry stressed on Thursday night.
Kerry gave an exclusive interview to MSNBC‘s Chris Hayes, outlining what the Obama administration sees as the role of the U.S. in the Syrian conflict. President Barack Obama has asked Congress for permission to engage in limited military action in response to reports that Syrian President Bashar al Assad used chemical weapons on his own people.
But that doesn’t mean the U.S. is going to war, Kerry said.
“I don’t believe this is taking America to war,” the Secretary said. “I believe this is enforcing a very limited military action — not going to war — that will, in fact, stand up for the notion that you should not use chemical weapons.”
Kerry also told Hayes that there would be no American “boots on the ground.” The U.S. does not have a place in the ongoing Syrian civil war, he said, but is simply responding to the use of chemical weapons. He said that more people would die and more extremists would enter Syria if the U.S. doesn’t take action.
“It is not Iraq, it is not Afghanistan, it is not even Libya,” Kerry said. “There will be no American boots on the ground. We are not sliding through a back door into a war. We’re not going to war. We’re taking a limited military action to enforce a very important principle.”
During the interview, Kerry also responded to criticism from some Bush administration officials, including Donald Rumsfeld. The former Secretary of Defense said a limited attack would make the U.S. look “feckless and ineffective.” Kerry didn’t mince words, lashing back at Rumsfeld and his colleagues in the Bush administration.
“It just doesn’t make a difference to me because they’re so discredited by their own judgments that it’s hard to see that they have a judgment today that’s relevant to this,” he responded. “I’ll listen to people whose judgment I clearly trust and respect.”
Kerry also criticized the Bush administration for giving the American people “shoddy intelligence” prior to the Iraq war.
The Secretary also said he expects Obama to speak directly to the American people to make his case for action in Syria.
