We’re looking for opportunities to do more and there will be boots on the ground and I want to be clear about that, but it’s a strategic question whether you are enabling local forces to take and hold rather than trying to substitute for them. That is a strategic intention that we have.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter

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Adapting to new functions will include changes in how we manage o... by Defense Secretary Ash Carter

Adapting to new functions will include changes in how we manage ourselves in cyberspace.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter

Well, that's where ISIL is. It's a town called Sirte, and that's where they're concentrated. And the targets we hit when the Libyan forces identify them. And they do that. I'm certain there will be more.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter

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So they have to be destroyed and defeated in Iraq and Syria, that... by Defense Secretary Ash Carter

So they have to be destroyed and defeated in Iraq and Syria, that's where this whole cancer started.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter

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I said ‘look guys and gals, we need you to do more. You know we're doing more. We're trying to accelerate what is the certain defeat of ISIL. You've got to get in the game and do more. Because we need to win as fast as we can,’.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter

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They're definitely in combat. That's how you get shot. Their purpose is counterterrorism. They were after a group of terrorists coming into Afghanistan.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter

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So if more is required…I will go to the president with the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as I have, and if he's done like he's done so far, he'll say go for it because we need to get this done quickly.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter

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This is the right thing to do for our people and for the force. by Defense Secretary Ash Carter

This is the right thing to do for our people and for the force.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter

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This is not just about jobs and trade, it's not just about hard, cold cash. It's also about building relationships across borders.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter

I think it's very hard to be very precise about these numbers. by Defense Secretary Ash Carter

I think it's very hard to be very precise about these numbers.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter

It's a strategic location, we've had it for a long time, it's important to us and we intend to hold onto it.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter

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It's something we watch very closely and it's something we take a... by Defense Secretary Ash Carter

It's something we watch very closely and it's something we take action against.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter

It's a tool that we introduced as part of our -- the accelerated operations to conduct raids of various kinds, seizing places and people, freeing hostages and prisoners of ISIL, and making it such that ISIL has to fear that anywhere, anytime, it may be struck.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter

If we don’t innovate and be competitive, we’re not going to be the military that the country needs and deserves, we should have done it a while ago.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter

I saw some of the A-10s that are flying bombing missions against ISIL (the Pentagon's term for ISIS) when I was at Incirlik Air Base in Turkey last December, and we need the additional payload capacity they can bring to the fight, we're pushing off the A-10's final retirement until 2022 so we can keep more aircraft that can drop smart bombs on ISIL.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter

As 2022 approaches, A-10s will be replaced by F-35s only on a squadron-by-squadron basis as they come online, ensuring that all units have sufficient backfill and that we retain enough aircraft needed to fight today's conflicts.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter

We're going to try to give opportunities and power to ... particularly Sunni Arabs in Syria who want to re-seize their territory back from ISIL, especially Raqqa.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter

We're not looking to substitute for them, any more than we're looking to substitute for the Iraqi forces. But we are looking to enable them strongly and help them organise themselves.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter

Some don't even like to acknowledge the operations of special forces, but there are a number of them. And we are the organiser of them.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter

I don't think anybody's satisfied with the pace of the (campaign), that's why we're all looking to accelerate it. Certainly the president isn't (satisfied).

Defense Secretary Ash Carter

We have a very clear operational picture of how to do it. Now we just need the resources and the forces to fall in behind it.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter