Taking America off a permanent war footing is proving harder than President Barack Obama may have suggested.

With striking optimism, Chuck Hagel said Saturday on his final visit to Afghanistan as U.S. defense secretary that he believes Afghans will successfully put down a surge in Taliban attacks in the capital and stabilize the nation.

On a trip to Afghanistan during President Barack Obama’s first term, Defense Secretary Robert Gates was stunned to find a telephone line at the military’s special operations headquarters that linked directly back to a top White House national security official.

Wary of a more muscular Russia and China, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Saturday the Pentagon will make a new push for fresh thinking and creative ideas about how the U.S. can keep and extend its military superiority despite tighter budgets and the wear and tear of 13 years of war.

A barrage of U.S.-led airstrikes in and around the Syrian city of Kobani, including 39 over the past two days, has killed hundreds of Islamic State fighters and has stiffened the city’s Kurdish defenders, the Pentagon’s spokesman said Wednesday.

It may be less punchy than previous nicknames for U.S. conflicts in the Middle East—remember Operation Desert Storm and its thunderous attacks on Saddam Hussein’s occupation army—but the Pentagon has finally named its fight against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria: Operation Inherent Resolve.