Secretary of State John Kerry told lawmakers Wednesday that no authorization for the continued use of force against the Islamic State is better than a bad one, and none is exactly what the administration may get.
Kerry appeared before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee with Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to make the case for congressional approval of the administration’s proposed authorization, which sets a three-year time limit, bars the use of U.S. forces in “enduring” ground combat and is not limited to Iraq and Syria.
But prospects for passage remain slim, not the least because it came months after the U.S.-led military campaign against the Islamic State began, and because the administration continues to insist it already has the authority to keep that campaign going under a 2001 resolution passed by Congress in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks that year.
“We’re convinced we have the authority. That’s not the issue here,” Kerry told senators.
At the start of the hearing, committee Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., laid out the political problem with President Obama’s request, saying he didn’t know a single Democratic senator who supported it. Republicans, for their part, are concerned about ratifying a strategy they believe is too limited and ineffective, he added.
“Clearly there’s a need to define exactly what would be allowed,” said Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey, the committee’s ranking Democrat, who noted that Democrats do not want “to give this or any other president an open-ended authorization for war.”
Kerry and Carter argued that a new resolution would demonstrate both to U.S. service members in the field and allies in the Middle East that the nation was united and committed to the fight.
A new resolution would allow Americans and their elected representatives “to speak with a single, powerful voice at this pivotal hour,” Kerry said.”Responding to the threat posed by [the Islamic State] is just not a partisan issue, at least it shouldn’t be.”
“Passing the proposed [authorization] will demonstrate to our personnel that their government stands behind them,” added Carter, though he admitted he wasn’t aware of any service members who doubted they had the support of Congress or the American people.
