By Amaani Lyle DoD News Features, Defense Media Activity
FORT MEADE, Md., September 11, 2015 — President Barack Obama
addressed a variety of national security topics during his unprecedented live
multimedia Worldwide Troop Talk here today.
The president’s broad discussion ranged from Russia’s effect
on the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in the Middle East to the future of
U.S. cyber efforts. It took place at the Defense Media Activity’s television
studio.
“Here at Fort Meade, we do some of the most important work
in helping to coordinate our efforts to make sure that we are bringing to bear
all elements of American power against those who would try to do us home here
in the homeland or overseas” he told the military audience gathered in the
studio.
In addition to the troops with him in the studio on Fort
Meade, Obama answered questions and addressed issues brought up by service
members around the world, who spoke over teleconference lines or submitted them
through social media channels.
‘An Incredible Job’
“We’ve done an incredible job in going after and
systematically dismantling the core al-Qaida network that was operating
primarily in the Fatah region between Afghanistan and Pakistan,” the president
explained in response to a question from a deployed service member about the
situation in Syria.
Radical violent extremism, Obama said, has “metastasized”
and spread to other areas. He noted that currently ISIL has settled in Syria as
“ground zero” for violence, which he said calls for U.S. presence and air
domination.
“We are pounding [ISIL] every single day,” Obama said. “Our
airmen are doing extraordinary work with the support of all the other service
branches, and we’re providing training, assistance and support to the Iraqi
security forces on the ground, as they continue to push back ISIL from the
territory that they have taken.”
Leverage Air Power
Obama explained that the United States’ strategy has
consistently been to leverage air power to support the Iraqi security forces’
ground efforts and, where when possible, the efforts of opposition groups
inside Syria to push back ISIL.
These push-back efforts, he said, include thwarting their
financing, networks, supplies and infrastructure.
However, Obama lamented that Syrian President Bashar
al-Assad has brought such destruction upon his people and cities, and created
sectarian conflict between Shia and Sunni populations inside Syria, so the
country has become “a magnet for jihadists throughout the region.”
Also, the president explained, if Assad remains in place, he
will have alienated so much of the Syrian population that a peaceful ceasefire
and political settlement will not be possible. “You’ll continue to have this
vacuum that’s filled by extremists,” he said.
According to the president, the “good news” is that Russia
and the United States share concerns about countering violent extremism and
concur that ISIL remains a danger.
Converging Interests
“Despite our conflicts with Russia in areas like Ukraine,
this is an area potentially of converging interests,” the president said. “The
bad news is that Russia continues to believe that Assad, who is their
traditional partner, is somebody … worthy of continuing support.”
The president recounted that Russian President Vladimir
Putin ignored his advice in recent years to cease financial support and arms
sales to Assad. “[Putin] did not take my warnings and as a consequence things
have gotten worse,” he said.
As the situation in Syria deteriorated, Obama said the
Syrian president has invited Russian
advisors and equipment in, but that won’t change the United States’ core
strategy to continue pressure on Iraq and Syria.
“We are going to be engaging Russia to let them know that
you can’t continue to double down on a strategy, if it’s doomed to fail,” the
president said.
“If they’re willing to work with us and the 60-nation
coalition that we put together, then there’s the possibility of a political
settlement in which Assad would be transitioned out and a new coalition of
moderate, secular and inclusive forces could come together to restore order in
the country,” he said.
Persistent Threats
Still, the president acknowledged significant threats from
terrorist organizations and ideologies persist in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and
North Africa.
The military must also be prepared for traditional threats,
from a new Pacific region, where historically the United States has
underwritten the security and prosperity of a region that returned after World
War II, and where the U.S. role continues as the cornerstone of NATO.
Ultimately, Obama stressed the need to work at every level
to ensure service members have the strategy, resources, equipment, and training
they need to succeed.
But, the president asserted, in this era those elements are
not just a matter of “tanks and rifles.”
Cyber Adversaries
“Cyber security is opening a whole new era in which we have
to watch out for our adversaries,” Obama said of the new theater for potential
conflict.
Obama said he’s seen State and non-state actors have
demonstrated an increasing sophistication of hacking and the ability to
penetrate systems previously thought to be secure. “Offense is moving faster
than defense,” he noted.
At least part of the problem, he said, lies in the original
design of the internet. “It was not designed with the expectation that there’d
end up being 3 or 4 or 5 billion people doing commercial transactions … they
thought this would be an academic network to share papers and formulae.”
Although the United States continues to best understand
cyber, the president acknowledged that other countries such as Russia, China
and Iran have “caught up.”
Coordinated Response
As a result, Obama said the United States in recent years
has developed a coordinated response, bringing together the military and other
government agencies with the private sector to better strengthen defenses.
There is still work to be done, and the president
anticipates the United States will need to do more and coordinate with other
actors more effectively.
“We going to have to both strengthen overall networks, but
we’re also going to have to train millions of individual actors, small
businesses, big vendors, [and] individuals in terms of basic cyber hygiene and
be much more rapid in responding to attacks,” he said.
“One of our first and most important efforts has to be to
get the states that may be sponsoring cyberattacks to understand there comes a point
at which we consider this a core national security threat, and will treat it as
such.”
On a more personal note, looking down the road to a time
when he will no longer be commander in chief -- his term concludes on Jan. 20,
2017 -- Obama said one of the things he will miss most will be working with
service members, whom he described as “ambassadors who spread good will” at
enormous sacrifice to themselves.
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