Already, the United States has changed some tactics, said
Carter, including going after the fuel convoys.
"If you look at the data, the thing that most enhances the
impact of the air campaign is better and better intelligence,"
said Carter. "We're prepared to change the rules of engagement.
We've changed tactics as we just did in the case of the fuel
trucks."
That decision happened before the Paris attacks, and Carter said
that it the intelligence was needed to identify that "part of
the energy infrastructure, which is being used by ISIL to
finance their operations. We're getting better and better at
this every day...I hope as a consequence of the terror attacks
France is indicating willingness to do more, and the European
countries do more than [they have done] so far."
In the end, it's vital that ISIS be defeated, said Carter, "but
they have the stay defeated. And that means that there has to be
capable and motivated local forces that are prepared to sustain
the defeat. We know from Afghanistan and we know from Iraq that
that's the hard part."
It is also important to clear the Syrian city of Raqqa, the
self-declared capital of the Islamic State, said Carter.
"Our approach to that is to surround it, close it off and then
take it back," he told the show. "They need to be destroyed
there and some reasonable form of government which has to be
local has to be restored there so it doesn't descend into chaos
once again."