Defense Secretary Ash Carter, speaking in advance of the July summit in Warsaw, called on NATO to do more in the fight against ISIS, including approving another deployment of NATO E-3 AWACS and additional training forces inside Iraq. “I like the things that we are discussing today, and I hope the heads of state approve both the AWACS and the defense capability building and training aspects,” Carter said at the end of a meeting of NATO defense ministers on Wednesday in Brussels. “There’s going to be more that each of us as individual nations can do to hasten the destruction of ISIL.” NATO already is doing a good job generating forces to help train Iraqi forces to hold territory it has gained inside the country, Carter said. But, the alliance could provide more logistics support. “All this stuff is very important to getting victory and sustaining victory,” he said. While some individual countries have accelerated their participation in Operation Inherent Resolve, the organization itself needs to “keep accelerating” to hasten the destruction of ISIS. (See also: Rallying the Allies.)
President Donald Trump on July 4 signed into law $150 billion in defense funds as part of the tax-and-spending package known as the “One Big, Beautiful Bill” after congressional Republicans approved the legislation in narrow, drawn-out votes earlier this week.
