Washington: Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday said that no one should doubt the capacity of the US to protect Americans, as he defended the swap of five Guantanamo detainees for American Bowe Bergdahl.
"Nobody, no one should doubt the capacity of America to protect Americans. And the president has always said he will do whatever is necessary in order to protect the United States of America," Kerry told the CNN in an interview.
He was responding to questions on the ability of the five Taliban militants freed from Guantanamo bay detention centre in exchange for US Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl and their ability to come back and fight against the US.
"So these guys pick a fight with us in the future or now or at any time at enormous risk, and we have proven what we`re capable of doing with Al Qaeda, the core Al Qaeda in west Pakistan, Afghanistan," he said.
"They`re not the only ones keeping an eye on them," he said when asked how confident he was that they`ll be able to keep a close eye on them.
"They aren`t the only ones keeping an eye on them," Kerry said. "We have confidence in those requirements. If they`re violated, then we have ability to be able to do things."
"We have the ability to be able to deal with people who want to threaten Americans who threaten the United States. If that`s what they go back on their word to do or if the Qataris don`t enforce what they`ve done, we have any number of avenues available to us to be able to deal with that," he added.
He said the US is ending its combat role in Afghanistan.
"Our combat role in Afghanistan is over...To whatever degree it may be true, they will wind up putting themselves at the mercy of those people who are very effective, who are there, who will deal with those matters," he said.
