Media Availability with Secretary Carter in Fort Wainwright, Alaska

STAFF: So we've got time for a couple of questions. And, Mr. Secretary, unless you want to say something off the top I'll just -- Blake, if you want to first, a couple of local folks, and then I'll try to get some of our travelers.

Q: So I’ll ask a question first.

STAFF: Yes, please, go ahead.

Q: So you have talked many times about the importance of Alaska’s strategic (inaudible) that you called the hinge for America’s future

SECRETARY OF DEFENSE ASH CARTER: Right.

Q: And that being said, how do you justify the cuts of nearly 3,000 Alaska-based soldiers by the end of 2017?

SEC. CARTER: So this is a reference to the 4-25, and I -- first of all the – I meant what I said, overall, the strategic role of Alaska's critical and the future here for the military presence is very bright, and I'll come back to the 4-25th, but the investments that we're making in the positioning of aircraft in facilities like this one here augur well for Alaska and it's role.

Now, are we able to do everything we want to do? No. Does that it any easier for the communities affected? No. And an important reason for that is that we have had gridlock in Washington for seven years now. This is the seventh straight year that we have begun the fiscal year without a budget. That is embarrassing to me. I think it's disappointing to the troops.

So the first thing is we don't have all of the resources that I would like to have. We have to make tough choices. The Army has had to make tough choices. The Army has decided, in part, for budgetary reasons, but also for strategic reasons to downsize some, and part of the reason for that is strategic is that the Army bulked up during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and it did that because they were protracted conflicts, where they had to rotate units through.

So part of this is the contraction associated with the end of that strategic era. But there's no question, part of it is the budget as well.

Now I'm hopeful that in the last few days, part of that gridlock has been broken in Washington, and that's of course not our responsibility in the Pentagon to do that, but there are budget negotiations that have reached completion, and between the Congress and the administration legislation has passed, and I hope that we've broken some of that gridlock, but for a community affected, or a unit affected, it's always problematic for them. But overall, the picture here in Alaska is exceptionally strong, and there are strategic reasons for that.

Q: Mr. Secretary (inaudible).

Can you hear me?

SEC. CARTER: Yes.

Q: We get a lot of media reports about Russian flights in the arctic (inaudible). I'd be interested in your assessment of (inaudible). How have those changed (inaudible) from the last two years?

SEC. CARTER: Well, there's no question that Russia has gotten more assertive militarily in recent years, and you see that reflected in activities in the Arctic, including flights near Alaska, which is one of the reasons why Alaska air capabilities are so important.

You see it in Eastern Europe, where the Russians were involved in aggression in Ukraine, including the annexation of Crimea, and in aggressive and intimidating behavior with respect Europe.

And then you last, you see it in Syria. So we have to respond to that, and we are responding.

Up here in Alaska you're responding to the air activity.

In Europe, we and our NATO allied are responding to Russian activity there. We have taken steps just in the last six months to increase our presence there, our exercises, a very high readiness task force, a number of things that we're doing in Europe that we didn't have to do for 25 years since the Cold War ended, because we didn't worry about conflict in Europe. Now we have to worry about deterring aggression in Europe.

And then finally, Syria, just to continue, the Russians embarked on an adventure there that they had not thought through very thoroughly, so it seems, because they said that they were going to combat ISIL, and then that's not what they were doing. They were propping up the Assad regime, which is just another way of fueling the very civil war that leads to extremism, which ISIL represents, and which the Russians say they fear.

So as we've been saying, they have a strategy that is doomed to fail.

Now if they adjust their strategy and get on the right things of Syria, which means backing a political transition from Assad to a government that can keep some level of decent governance in this place that, boy, really needs it after these years, and really joins the fight against ISIL, that would be a strategy we could associate ourselves with, but that has not been their strategy so far, and that's why we can't associate ourselves with it.

Now, Secretaries (sic) Kerry is talking to a number of countries, including Russia, about the political transition, and we'll just have to see where those talks go.

STAFF: We've got time for one more.

Geoff.

We've got a time schedule so I'm sorry.

Geoff Dyer.

SEC. CARTER: Jeff?

Q: Mr. Secretary, I would like to ask you about Syria, specifically about Raqqa which you mentioned in your testimony.

SEC. CARTER: Yes.

Q: And the Arab coalition forces (inaudible). Is it your objective that these forces pressure (inaudible), make life hard for ISIS. Or is it your objective (inaudible)?

SEC. CARTER: Well, ultimately Raqqa has to be retaken and returned to its citizens and to a decent way of life, which they're not enjoying under the barbaric rule of ISIL now.

In the near term, we will apply pressure to them. What does that mean? It means degrading their capacity to fight, their logistics, their roads that go in and out of the city that supply them, their command and control, their leaders, taking out their leaders.

And so in the near term it'll take the form of pressure, but ultimately the territory has to be rid of ISIL and returned to decent people, because this is no way to live.

Q: Is this force capable of (inaudible)?

SEC. CARTER: I think it's capably of putting pressure on. I think it will gather strength -- if it's successful it will gather strength, and we will work with it as it gathers strength. And ultimately, the objective needs to be to reclaim territory in Syria, and also I should say Iraq. You didn't ask about Iraq. But from ISIL -- and defeat ISIL finally. That has to happen, because it's not safe or decent to allow ISIL to exist and rule over that part of the world, let alone threaten our own people and the rest of the world.

STAFF: Thanks, everybody. Appreciate it.

SEC. CARTER: Thank you all very much. Thanks for coming.