On the eve of the 13th Anniversary of 9/11, President Obama took to the airwaves and declared:

Our objective is clear: We will degrade, and ultimately destroy, ISIL through a comprehensive and sustained counterterrorism strategy.

I don’t know about you, but I’d say using words like degrade and destroy means we are going into battle and should plan to win the war against these terrorists before they come here to the US.  Quite a few other folks thought so as well.

Well guess what? Using the word “war” is wrong! Just ask Secretary of State John Kerry.

The United States is not at war with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS or ISIL), Secretary of State John Kerry said Thursday.

Kerry said the administration’s plan to combat ISIS includes “many different things that one doesn’t think of normally in context of war” during an interview with CNN.

“What we are doing is engaging in a very significant counterterrorism operation,” Kerry said. “It’s going to go on for some period of time. If somebody wants to think about it as being a war with ISIL, they can do so, but the fact is it’s a major counterterrorism operation that will have many different moving parts.”
In a separate interview with CBS News, Kerry also rejected the word “war” to describe the U.S. effort and encouraged the public not to “get into war fever” over the conflict.

So ordering more airstrikes, attempting to build a reluctant coalition of countries that will do the same, putting another 475 US soldiers at risk in Iraq, finding out that ISIS troop numbers have doubled, and refusing to label ISIS what they are is all part of the Administration’s non-warlike plan?  Kerry calls it a combat plan, but refuses to use the “W” word.  Even Susan Rice doesn’t want us to use that horrible “W” word:

She explained that when Americans thought about war, it was clear that they would think about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
“We’ll not have American combat forces on the ground fighting as we did in Iraq and Afghanistan, which is what I think the American people think of when they think of a war, so I think this is very different from that.”

By all means, lets not get all WAR FEVERISH over what is coming next in this on-going war, conflict, combat, operation, exercise, scrimmage even though the President said:

And our own safety, our own security, depends upon our willingness to do what it takes to defend this nation and uphold the values that we stand for –- timeless ideals that will endure long after those who offer only hate and destruction have been vanquished from the Earth.

I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m very certain that we are indeed at war against ISIS as they (whether actually a real country state or not) have declared war against us.  I’d much rather that we do what it takes to succeed and do so by implementing a clearer plan of action than what has been proposed, with the understanding that we must adjust our tactics to halt ISIS and other terrorist groups in their tracks.  I guess we now have to call it a ramped-up campaign against ISIS rather than get all war feverish and such.

But I guess, instead of being direct and clear, our Secretary of State would rather ride a pink bicycle than use the “W” word

I guess, instead of being a leader, our President would rather make a grand statement, avoid using that pesky “W” word, and then run off to the golf course.

One thing is certain, if we follow Kerry, Rice, and the President’s lead, our vocabulary is going to have to change. Whatever words or intricate phraseology we want to use, we’ve now been informed that we cannot and must not use the word WAR to describe this grand new plan of scrimmage. WAR. Its a BAD word.  A Very Bad Word.  Speaking for myself, I’ll be keep using that Bad Word because we are at war.  I know it, you know it, and ISIS knows it.   If that makes me War Feverish, then so be it.

UPDATE:  Now we find out that the White House, the Pentagon, the State Department, and who knows who else can’t seem agree on what the correct terminology for war is!  But supposedly they are all on the same page:

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest and Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby used almost identical language when pressed by reporters Friday whether or not the expanded military operation against the terrorist group is in fact a war.

“In the same way that the United States is at war with Al Qaeda and its affiliates … the United States is at war with ISIL,” Earnest said.

Kirby said “this is not the Iraq War” from a decade ago, “but make no mistake — we know we are at war with ISIL in the same way we are at war and continue to be at war with Al Qaeda and its affiliates.”

So, what we have here is the gang who can’t shoot straight, talk straight, lead, follow, or even get their act together.  They may be confused as to what words are acceptable, and they may be confused as to what page they are supposed to be on.  But we aren’t.  And neither is ISIS.