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SECRETARY OF DEFENSE ASH CARTER: ... am to be back again at Fort Bragg.
Been here many times. So much that Fort Bragg does for our country, so many missions essential our security that are accomplished here at Fort Bragg. And so I -- I've been thanking the troops here, but I also want to thank the community for their support of this essential installation.
I was just speaking to troopers from the XVIII Airborne Corps, one of the elements headquartered here at Bragg, which I'm now asking - we are asking - to do two big jobs at the same time. First, to continue to be our emergency response force, our Global Response Force because we are a global country with global responsibilities, but also, today, their headquarters will take command of the important campaign to defeat and destroy ISIL in Iraq and Syria.
I have tremendous confidence in the command team that will take over the war there. Led by Lieutenant General Stephen J. Townsend. I have known him for a long time. I have complete confidence in his exceptional abilities.
And he's got a great staff that's going with him. They know the area very well. They are very well acquainted with and briefed on the steps we've taken in the campaign so far. And I am confident that they will bring us closer to what I'm confident will occur, which is the lasting defeat of ISIL.
I'll also meet with today with our Joint Special Operations Command, another critical national element located here at Fort Bragg. While I can't tell you much about what we will be discussing there, I can just say that they like the other elements here at Bragg are essential to our security. We count on them every single day in ways that not everyone can see, but everyone can feel in the protection it affords to them around the world.
Once again, I thank everyone - the folks here who have hosted while I've been here, but above all, the community for supporting this tremendous installation.
With that, let me go - Peter you...
STAFF: (off-mike). Gilbert, go ahead.
Q: Mr. Secretary, the President just got additional information from General Townsend that we need to not lessen the numbers of troops in Afghanistan and maintain a certain number there. What are other Generals telling and what are you thinking that we need to do in order to defeat ISIL? Is there anything that you've seen that will guide us to lead the role of training the Iraqi Forces to send combat units in to actually (inaudible).
SEC. CARTER: Well first of all, we talk about that everyday of every week. And I'm sure I'll be talking to General Townsend very frequently, just like I speak to General MacFarland today. Chairman Dunford and I do - General Votel is our CENTCOM Commander, and of course we talk to the President all the time about this.
And the general answer to your question is are we prepared to do more to accelerate the campaign and defeat ISIL? The answer to that is yes. And I think you have seen that over the last five months.
Just a couple of weeks ago in Baghdad, I announced an additional contingent of U.S. forces. Now with respect to what they're doing there, I'll just remind you that our overall strategic approach in Iraq and Syria, is to enable victory by capable motivated local forces, and not try to substitute for them. Because they need to make the victories stick after the victory is won, and only local forces can do that. We can help them and we are helping them, but our overall strategic approach is that.
That said, that is very difficult duty. It's a duty that only America and its coalition partners have the power and the acumen to accomplish. And it should be clear that it puts our folks in harms way. There is no doubt about it.
And there's no more important responsibility for me as secretary of defense than to put our people in harm's way.
We do that advisedly. Force protection is a very important aspect of things to us. But nobody should be in any doubt that forces that are participating in this campaign are at risk, despite the strategic approach that I said is -- is to enable local forces.
Q: (inaudible) Mr. Secretary, (inaudible) talk about your concerns about the stabilization and reconstruction effort that would follow onto any defeat of ISIL in Mosul or Raqqah. And you talked about the need for the international community to be involved in that.
But do you see a role for U.S. civilian contractors to take part in those efforts, much as they've done in the past in Iraq and Afghanistan?
SEC. CARTER: I do think that much of the reconstruction effort will be done by -- under civil authorities. That is, not Department of Defense, but other parts of the U.S. government, but very importantly, the international community and the United Nations. Much of their activity is done through contractors. Some of those are Americans, who have a lot of experience, by the way, after 15 years of -- of heavy involvement in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the region.
That's going to be a big job. That's not a principally American job. We will play a role in it, but remember the -- the more than $2 billion that we -- in pledges that we got last week will mostly be executed through civilian agencies and frequently they'll use contractors to do that. So absolutely.
Q: Sir, one of the things that struck me about this visit and (inaudible) is almost a schizoid nature. In this very corps, we had paratroopers going into Poland for a NATO exercise, and we have the corps HQ going into the Mideast for a COIN (Inaudible) CT (inaudible).
You yourself spend (inaudible) a big chunk of your time waging war on ISIS and a big chunk with things like Third Offsets, (inaudible). They're all very great power- focused.
Is there any way to cross-pollinate these? To leverage, you know, these very experienced officers with all these years of post- 9/11 experience, for perhaps the (inaudible) or hybrid threats we see from big powers? Is there any way to leverage from this technology, like even the F-35, which (inaudible), for the so-called low end point.
SEC. CARTER: Well, first of all, you're right. We're busy, because we have the counter-ISIL campaign to win, which we will do. But in Europe, which you mentioned, we are standing with our NATO allies against aggression, both the traditional sort of aggression, and then what you called hybrid warfare, which is the "little green men" phenomenon you saw in Ukraine.
We're standing for principle and continued security in the Asia Pacific, which is where half of humanity lives and half of the economic activity of the world is. We stand tall every single day on the Korean peninsula. People forget that -- North Korea, the DMZ; with respect to Iran, and Iran's malign influence in the Gulf.
So we have lots of things that we have to do and pay attention to. And we have today and we have tomorrow. So I need to be making sure that we're successful and that I support our folks in what they have to do today, but we also have to think 10, 20 years ahead and make sure that we remain the finest fighting force the world has ever known. That means having the best technology and the best people for tomorrow.
So the answer is we've got to do the whole world and we've got to do today and tomorrow. But the -- the people you saw here in this room, they're capable of all that. When I talk about the global response force, which Steve Townsend has been and remains responsible for, that really is a global response force.
And he uses the same forces -- we do have forces that are -- that are very flexible in their capabilities, and the training of the people who are in this room is really quite broad. They're trained from high spectrum, high-end of the combat spectrum right down to what is called the lower end, but which is still dangerous counterterrorism, counterinsurgency and so forth.
And then finally, as -- it's a long answer, but it was a big question. They're also very good at enabling other militaries, and that's going to be one of their principal functions, training, advising, assisting in giving the high-end stuff to forces that don't have it and need it, like Iraqi forces that are approaching Mosul.
STAFF: Back over to you, sir.
Q: We all know now that the threat of ISIS is extending outside of the Middle East. I think the third point on your (inaudible) talking about supporting law enforcement, strengthening Homeland Security. Can you expand on that a little bit...
SEC. CARTER: Sure.
Q: ... and talk to me about what that looks like?
SEC. CARTER: Yeah, absolutely can.
Obviously, the -- the lead for protecting American people within the United States is law enforcement -- state, local and federal -- and the Department of Homeland Security and our intelligence community, but we do support them as the Department of Defense.
We support them in, for example, the air defense of the country. We support them in deploying troops to major events that could be targets for terrorist activity. We support them if and when something catastrophic happens, a natural disaster or hypothetically a major attack on the United States.
So we're -- there are lots of different ways that we support them. So we're not in the lead there as we are in a -- in a, you know, theater of war in that way. But it's very much on our mind and General Lori Robinson, who's the commander of our Northern Command, she does this every day, pays attention to the defense of North America. That's her mission in the same way that General Votel's CENT Command, Central Command, is for the Middle East.
Lori's got North America. She's got us. She's extremely capable and that's what she does every day.
STAFF: Got time for two more, sir, (inaudible).
Q: Yes, sir. Are there specific accelerant capabilities that you expect General Townsend and his troops to bring to the fight (inaudible)?
SEC. CARTER: I think the whole suite. They are cross-trained in everything. So Steve will have the air war, the cyber war, the space war, the ground war, the training, logistics, equipment, force protection, the whole deal.
SEC. CARTER: And one of the important things that we did in establishing the command that General Townsend will fill is precisely that, put everything underneath that commander. So whatever he needs, he'll get, whatever is over there, he is in charge of.
And in today's campaign against an enemy like ISIL, it runs the whole spectrum, all the way from - you know, air power to cyber.
Q: Sir, last week during the counter-ISIL meetings, there is a lot of discussion on building up the Iraqi troops specifically for retaking Mosul. If I recall correctly, that includes building up six brigades for that operation. Where are we in the process of building up those troops? Is there any kind of update as to where we are with those coalition...
SEC. CARTER: Sure, let me give you the outlines then I send you over to General MacFarland and then ultimately, General Townsend for the details.
But it is exactly as you say. There are Iraqi Army Brigades trained and equipped, and most of them have been done that - have gone through their training already but not all of them by the United States and our coalition partners. Mostly in southern Iraq.
They are in the process of relocating northern Iraq, that is where Makhmour, and Qayyarah West, and those locations that you hear about commend. They are the staging areas in the southern approaches to Mosul, that they will use for the southern most envelopment.
You did mention, and it might have, and I'm sure you know, that in addition there are Peshmerga brigades from the north. It is organized, trained by the coalition in agreement between Prime Minister Abadi and President Barzani that will make the northernmost part of this pincer movement on Mosul.
So the training and equipping of all of those forces, all of that is going on schedule. The positioning of them will go on schedule. And that will lead to the envelopment of Mosul and ultimately, to the collapse of ISIL's control over Mosul. You have got exactly what -- those are, the parts.
And of course that's been underway for quite some time.
Q: (inaudible).
SEC. CARTER: Sorry, I want to answer one other thing. And also of course the Iraqi Special Forces which have been - they will also be trained and equipped -- enable, assist, and advise them. And then also with the Iraqi government, local police forces, which are important because I was emphasizing the need for the Iraqis to be able to hold territory, keep the peace, and keep ISIL out once we've beaten them and thrown them out.
And that only they can do. And so training local police forces is a critical part of the overall mission.
Thank you. Thanks all. Thank you very much everybody for being here.