http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/260829-kerry-urges-patience-with-isis-after-briefing-senate By Julian Hattem - 11/19/15 05:00 PM EST
Secretary of State John Kerry called for patience in the fight against Islamic radicals on Thursday, after a more than two-hour briefing with the Senate Intelligence Committee.
The nation’s top diplomat insisted that the Obama administration’s strategy in Syria would eventually pay off, resulting in the dismantling of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) as well as a political transition to oust President Bashar Assad.
He also criticized comments from prominent Republican voices who have sounded loud alarms warning that letting Syrian refugees into the country would make it vulnerable to attacks from the extremist group.
“We do not have to lose our values in terms of our ability to vet people and to know exactly who they are and where they’re coming from,” Kerry said.
“It’s just inappropriate for America of all countries in the world to panic and to somehow turn our backs on our fundamental values."
Kerry’s comments came hours after a sweeping vote in the House to rebuke President Obama and temporarily pause the Obama administration’s plans to allow 10,000 refugees into the country over the next year. Forty-seven Democrats joined with Republicans to pass the legislation.
The U.S. is engaged in a “three-pronged strategy,” Kerry insisted, to “degrade and defeat” ISIS as well as “stabilize the region” and then push for a diplomatic solution to push Assad from power.
“We have to be patient,” Kerry insisted.
“I am confident if we stay steady, keep our heads thinking creatively but also being strong and committed to our fundamental values, we’re going to defeat Daesh,” he added, using an alternate name for ISIS.
Republican critics of the Obama administration’s strategy against ISIS have accused it of being ineffective in the wake of attacks in Paris, Beirut and the Sinai Peninsula that have killed hundreds of people.
“We always said it would take time,” Kerry defended on Thursday.
“We began our fight against al Qaeda in 2001 and it took us quite a few years before we were able to eliminate Osama bin Laden and the top leadership and neutralize them as an effective force," he said. "We hope to do Daesh much faster than that. We believe we have an ability to do that.”
Most lawmakers were tight-lipped after Thursday afternoon’s briefing, which came a full day after Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and other administration officials briefed the full Senate on details of the refugee program.
However, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.), who attended Thursday’s briefing in the Intel panel, appeared to dismiss the administration’s talking points.
Kerry has a “delusion,” McCain said, that Russia would somehow play a helpful role in pushing Assad from power.
“I think the Russians have made clear their ambitions and that is to prop up Bashar Assad or his stooge,” McCain told reporters after the briefing. “It’s all delusional.”
