This is Frank Gaffney with the Secure Freedom Minute.

For months, Secretary of State John Kerry has touted a “cessation of hostilities” in Syria he secured with his Russian counterpart and claimed the resulting “cease-fire” has been generally holding.

He’s trumpeted a reinvigorated “peace process” and the fact that some of Syria’s long-suffering civilians have been able to obtain emergency food and medical supplies. He praised the Russians for withdrawing some of the units they had injected to prop up Syrian dictator Basher Assad.

Secretary Kerry has only recently grudgingly acknowledged that Russia and Assad’s forces have actually been intensifying their combat operations, imperiling civilians and making a mockery of the Syrian “peace process.”

Pretending otherwise has enabled Vladimir Putin to keep strengthening his position in Syria and that of Assad and their mutual ally, Iran. It amounts to national security fraud.

This is Frank Gaffney.