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Isis. we heard a robust defense of the u.s. strategy and the president said we have ramped up the response. we are quesqueezing isis at the heart, strong language, and sending defense secretary carter to the middle east to review the strategy on the ground, secure commitments from u.s. allies. take a listen. just as the united states is doing more in this fight, just as our allies, australia and italy, are doing more, so must others. and that s why i ve asked secretary cart tore go to the at least middle east. we ll leave right after this press briefing to work on securing more contributions to this fight. reporter: again, kate, so much of today was about optics. the president on thursday going to the counterterrorism center to get a briefing on the threat level to the u.s. homeland. ....
Doing more in this fight. our allies, germany, france, the united kingdom, australia. i have asked secretary cart tore go to the middle east. he will depart after this press briefing, to work with our coalition partners on securing more military contributions to this fight. on the diplomatic front, secretary kerry will be in russia tomorrow as we continue to work to end the syrian civil war. here at home the department of homeland security is updating its alert system to help the american people stay vigilant and safe. and as always our extraordinary men and women in uniform continue to put their lives on the line top keep the rest of us safe. this holiday season many of our troops from far from their families and as your commander-in-chief on behalf of the american people we want to say thank you. we are grateful and frowd proud for everything you do. ....
God. thank you both for your service. turning to brandon first, when you hear some of the details of this mission, we heard from secretary cart canner saying the idea wasn t to be involved in a fire fight. it wasn t supposed to be within this compound. how would wub of these rescue operations go down? in a situation like this when you have the sergeant in an advisory role, the intelligence is coming from our kurdish partners. you re not going to have a lot of u.s. knowledge of exactly what went down here. what s almost tragic and sergeant wheeler is is an american hero and the fact that it s been disclosed that he s part of delta force, it really shows that the army is shouldering a huge burden on the war on terror. the tragedy to me is we have the best and brightest of the special operations in places ....
Small nuclear bomb. do they have the will? do they have the strategy? no, i suspect secretary cart hears committed the classic washington gaffe of telling the truth inadvertently. the reason the lack of a will to fight is so important is because the iraqi army realizes that it doesn t have the staying power the capability against the fanaticism of isis. they re scared of losing. they re scared of being captured. i don t think there is anything the united states is going to do in the near term to change that around. the attack that is now about to be mounted on ramadi may succeed because of overwhelming numbers, because of unleashing shia militia but i tell you as in earlier battles, with for example, tikrit recently the shia militias go in and commit atrocities almost guaranteed to do. you re simply reinforcing the strategic reality that iraq as a state has ceased to exist. i don t think the united states benefits at all by supporting the baghdad government. ....