Echoing the views of the two presidential candidates -- Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton -- that the US is at war with terror groups, the White House today said the country has been at war with al-Qaeda since 9/11 and important progress has been made on that front.
"The (US) President has said on a number of occasions that terrorists and al-Qaeda declared war on the United States on 9/11, and we have been at war with them ever since. And we have made important progress in that war," White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters.
Earnest made the remarks while responding to questions from reporters on remarks made by both -- Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and her Republican rival Donald Trump -- after the terrorist attack in France on Thursday that the US is at war against Islamic extremists.
The two candidates meant ISIS and did not mention al- Qaeda in their interviews.
The White House said core al-Qaeda that previously used to operate and live with impunity in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region has been decimated.
There are al-Qaeda affiliates in other parts of the world that are the source of ongoing concern.
"There are also organisations like ISIL that trace their roots back to al-Qaeda, and obviously, that's one extremist organisation that does pose a threat and has attracted the intense attention of the United States and the international coalition that we lead," Earnest said.
Earnest said Obama has been pretty
unequivocal about all of that.
"We've also been quite unequivocal about the fact that we're still waiting on Congress to pass an authorisation to use military force against ISIL. I know there are some critics of the administration who like to talk tough and suggest that somehow we need to declare war on ISIL. I would encourage those individuals to consult a copy of the United States Constitution that many of them carry around in their suit pocket," he said in an apparent criticism of Trump saying that he would approach the Congress to declare war against such groups.
"They often wield that as evidence of their patriotism. Well, I would encourage them to consider that document carefully and actually remind themselves that it's Congress who has the authority to declare war," he said.
It is now been almost a year and half since Obama sent up legislative language for an authorisation to use military force that the Congress should pass.
"And passing that authorisation to use military force would send a clear signal to the American people, to our allies, and yes, to our enemies that the United States is united behind the President's strategy to degrade and ultimately destroy ISIL," he said.
"The truth of the matter is, our men and women in the intelligence community and our men and women in the military are doing their part to take the fight to ISIL, and it's time for members of Congress to do their job," Earnest said.
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"In Pakistan, in Western Pakistan, it's interesting. We haven't had soldiers there in over 10 years, yet we continue to diminish and degrade the capability of al-Qaida central to reach us strategically. I worry about this all the time, that without that presence there and the Pakistani army isn't in there very often either. Once in a while they come rumbling through, but that's not really that effective," Sheehan said.
"That they're there in those mountainous regions and what's interesting is we need Afghanistan almost as much as a base to attack the FATA than we need Afghanistan itself. Afghanistan has no strategic importance to the United States. However, the importance is that al-Qaida is there and blew up the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. We can't allow that to come back again," Sheehan said.
"They are in Western Pakistan and for a variety of political reasons we can't put troops on the ground there so we've had to come up with a solution to diminish AQ in Pakistan without one soldier on the ground. So sometimes you have to come up with solutions with no troops on the ground.
"Other times if you have the ability to send 100,000 there it doesn't mean you should. So it's a matter of finding the right solution commensurate with the threat," Sheehan said.
