Fox News’ Shepard Smith put the State Department’s Jen Psaki in an uncomfortable position Wednesday. He asked her to differentiate the Obama administration’s current policy for dealing with terrorist forces in Syria from that of former President George W. Bush’s “doctrine of preemptive war.”Smith said: “The law is if you have been attacked, absolutely go after it. If you believe an attack is imminent you can sort of preemptively (sic). It was only Cheney who said you can just go kill people because you’re afraid they might kill us.”
“It looks like to a lot of international observers that’s what we’re doing. I’m not suggesting this. I’m telling you that’s what it looks like international observers, who think what we’re doing might be illegal,” he added.
Missing from this specific question from Smith was any mention of the Khorasan group, the terrorist cell cited Monday by the Obama administration as posing a serious and imminent threat to the security of American interests. Elsewhere in the interview he addressed this group.
Psaki responded: “We’re acting in the self-defense of Iraq. They want us to help them, they’ve asked us to come in and help them. There’s a letter that has been sent to the United Nations explaining the legal aspect of this.”
“There’s no question we’re going to ask with legal authority, but the president is going to defend the national interest of the United States,” she added.
Smith let it go at that: “It’s squishy.”
