By Cheryl Pellerin
DoD News, Defense Media Activity
WASHINGTON, Feb. 22, 2015 – As part of his first official
trip to Afghanistan as defense secretary, Ash Carter made a stop in Kandahar
today to thank U.S. troops there for their dedication to the mission and the
progress they and their NATO and Afghan allies have achieved.
His visit was to the Train Advise and Assist Command South,
or TAAC South, formerly Regional Command South. The command’s area of
responsibility includes the provinces of Kandahar, Uruzgan, Zabul and Daykundi.
The U.S. 1st Cavalry Division is what is called the TAAC
South framework element, and contributing countries include Romania, Slovakia,
the United Kingdom, Belgium, Australia, Jordan and Georgia.
At TAAC South’s Kandahar Airfield headquarters, Carter told
the troops that they are his priority.
Thanking the Troops
“You're what I wake up to every morning” he said. “I never
forget for one minute that you're here and what you're doing, the sacrifice
that being here entails and the risk that it entails for you.”
He thanked the troops personally and on behalf of the
Defense Department and the nation.
While in Afghanistan, the secretary will assess progress
being made in the country so he can determine future actions and make
recommendations to President Barack Obama, he told service members.
The train, advise and assist mission is becoming the heart
of the effort in Afghanistan that will make permanent the success that U.S. and
coalition troops have sacrificed so much for, Carter said.
An Important Country in the World
“We'll never be gone from Afghanistan because Afghanistan is
an important country in the world,” he added, “but when our presence here is
reduced to something much smaller than today, we want to make sure that the
Afghans themselves are able to preserve the environment our forces have created
over the last few years, one of relative security and stability.”
Carter told the men and women in uniform that he’d met with
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Dr. Abdulla Abdullah in Kabul.
“There's one thing President Ghani said that I want to share
with you. He said, ‘Would you please tell your people that I appreciate the
sacrifice they have made for my country.’”
Carter said, “Just think about that -- remember that.”
Questions From the Troops
Before giving each service member a coin and having his
picture taken with them, Carter took questions from his audience that ranged
from cybersecurity to military retirement to downsizing the force. But first he
commented on the coins.
“Let me tell you a little bit about the coin. … I'm so new
they haven't made coins with my name on them yet, so I'm sorry about that. It's
a more generic secretary of defense coin. It may not be as valuable on eBay as
an Aston B. Carter coin,” he said to laughter from the audience, “but you can
trade up later.”
His first question was about the cyber dimension of building
a force of the future.
“Cyber has to be part of building the force of the future --
is in fact part of the force of right now,” the defense secretary said.
Leveraging Technology
One of the reasons the United States has the finest fighting
force the world has ever seen is because of the way the nation leverages
technology, Carter said, especially information technology.
The field is exploding and it's everywhere in the world, he
added, “and that means if we don't change and we don't keep up, we can't keep
our position as the best in the world.”
The United States has a substantial lead in cyberspace now,
Carter said, “and there’s no reason why we can't keep it.”
“The reason we'll stay the greatest is that we'll keep
striving to be at the forefront,” the secretary added. “And in today's world
the only way to be excellent is to be open to ideas from the outside. You can't
think of everything yourself and you can't do everything yourself.”
Military Retirement System
To a question about the military retirement system, Carter
said he’s open to reconsidering the system.
The Military Compensation and Retirement Modernization
Commission studied the current system and sent its report to Carter, who said
he’s studying it.
“Ultimately under the law I'm required to then tell
President Obama what I think about it and I haven't had a chance to do all that
yet, and absorb it,” he said.
But Carter added that his starting point is that such a
system attracts those who will keep the all-volunteer force healthy in the
future and that continues to offer a retirement structure that is attractive
and gives recruits appropriate incentives along the way to stay in the military
or retire at a time that is best for them and best for the force.
Keeping the All-volunteer Force Healthy
“That’s the criterion that I will principally apply in
considering these things,” the secretary added. “It's not about money [or] anything
else. It's fundamentally mostly about the health of the force in the future and
that's the lens through which I will look at it.”
The military retirement system has financial implications
for each individual service member and for the country as a whole, Carter said,
but the priority is to make sure the services have the right people.
“Any change we make [should] be one that those already in
service don't have to make if they don't want to,” the secretary said, adding
that this in line with what the commission recommended.
“I don't want to breach our understanding with you at the
time you joined, that's not fair, he told service members.
The services can make alternatives available to those who
may join the military in the future, and available to those who are in now,
Carter said, “but if we made a deal with you when you first got in, I think we
ought to keep that deal.”
Defending the Nation
To a question about downsizing the military at a time when
multiple national security challenges face the nation, Carter said he’s
adamantly opposed to the budget cuts known as sequestration.
The sequestration process is unwise and unsafe for national
security going forward,” he told troops.
“We’ve got to spend enough money on defense to protect our
country and protect our interests,” the secretary said. “We just can't have a
mindless mechanism that decides what the defense budget is.” The nation, he
added, must decide what it needs to protect itself, its interests and its
allies, and consider those elements to build a budget.
It’s also imperative, he said, to put every defense dollar
to good use.
“My reaction every time somebody says … how are you spending
your money? Fair enough. It’s fair enough to be challenged and make sure we're
using all that money” in the best possible ways, Carter said.
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