Errr, what?

Via CNS News:

President Obama never wanted to be a war president, but apparently  he is.

Not only has he has taken credit for ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; he also has insisted on several occasions that the United States will not be “dragged into another ground war in the Middle East,” and he has emphasized that the United States is moving away from a “13-year war footing.”

But in the past two days, two different Obama aides have said that the U.S. is “at war with al Qaeda and its affiliated groups.” […]

“Are we at war with al Qaeda?” a reporter asked Rhodes on Monday:

“Look, we’ve always said that we’re at war with al Qaeda and its affiliated networks, that that’s been an ongoing effort,” Rhodes said. “That’s, frankly, rooted also in the AUMF (authorization for the use fo military force) that was passed after 9/11.

“And look, we have made great progress against al Qaeda core, and we’ve made this distinction many times, that while we have decimated leadership ranks of al Qaeda core in Afghanistan and Pakistan, that what you’ve seen is the emergence of different affiliates, particularly AQAP (in Yemen).  That’s one that we’ve been uniquely focused on the last several years.  So that is how we approach it.