White House: We're at war with ISIS

Uncredited/AP

WASHINGTON - The U.S. is at war with ISIS, the White House and Pentagon said Friday, a day after Secretary of State John Kerry stubbornly declined to use the 'W' word.

'In the same way that we are at war with al Qaeda and its affiliates around the globe, we are at war with ISIL,' White House spokesman Josh Earnest said, using another acronym for ISIS, also known as the Islamic State.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby offered a similar reaction Friday.

'Make no mistake, we know we are at war with ISIL in the same way we're at war and continue to be at al Qaeda and its affiliates,' Kirby said.

The similarly worded statements suggested a coordinated effort to by the Obama administration to clear up confusion caused by Kerry in an interview Thursday with CNN.

Evan Vucci/AP

'We're engaged in a counterterrorism operation of a significant order,' said Kerry, speaking from Saudi Arabia. 'I think 'war' is the wrong reference term with respect to that, but obviously it involves kinetic military action.'

Kerry's comments drew criticism from Republican lawmakers who said the secretary of state's rhetoric did not match the President's tough stand against ISIS in a prime time address Wednesday.

'It's hard to find a response to that,' Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) told Fox News, when asked about Kerry's comments. 'Then what was the President talking about last night?''

In his speech, the President announced an expansion of airstrikes against ISIS, the deployment of another 475 military advisers to Iraq, and the training of so-called moderate Syrian rebels.

However, the President did not use the word 'war,' either.

It's not the first time the Obama administration has found itself on the defensive for the language it's used to characterize its campaign against ISIS.

The President was sharply criticized for saying in late August that he did not have a strategy yet for dealing with ISIS.

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