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TODAYS TOP HEADLINES
The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com
Thursday, December 20, 2018 3A
Trump pulls US troops out of Syria
President declares victory against Islamic State; party lawmakers call action rash, dangerous
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis welcomes Vice President Mike Pence to the Pentagon, Wednesday, Dec. 19, after
learning President Donald Trump is pulling all 2,000 U.S. troops out of Syria
Bill approved to keep government running into 2019
WASHINGTON — The Senate approved legisla
tion Wednesday to temporarily fund the govern
ment, a key step toward averting a federal shutdown
after President Donald Trump backed off his
demand for money for a border wall with Mexico.
Senators passed the measure, which would keep
government running to Feb. 8, by voice vote with
out a roll call. The House is also expected to move
before Friday’s deadline, when funding for a por
tion of the government expires. Without resolution,
more than 800,000 federal workers would face fur
loughs or be forced to work without pay, disrupting
government operations days before Christmas.
While the White House indicated Trump was
open to reviewing whatever Congress could pass,
the president did not immediately weigh in on the
short-term plan.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.,
said the Senate will remain in session Thursday.
“We have to see what the House does,” he said.
Many of Trump’s supporters were frustrated
that he appeared to retreat on his shutdown threats
after promising a fight over the wall, which had
been central to his presidential campaign. Just last
week Trump said he would be “proud” to shut down
the government over his demand for $5 billion for
the wall. Some allies described the move as caving
on his pledge, expressing concern that it could hurt
Trump’s 2020 prospects.
Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., a leader of the conser
vative House Freedom Caucus, said Trump’s politi
cal base “will just go crazy” if he signs a bill without
wall funding. He warned it will be tougher to win the
money next year when Democrats control the House.
He said supporters of the president “believe it’s a
promise that he’s been telling them that he will keep. ”
On Twitter, Trump appeared to respond to criti
cism by insisting that “one way or the other, we will
win on the Wall!”
Associated Press
BY LOLITA C. BALD0R, ROBERT
BURNS AND MATTHEW LEE
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — President
Donald Trump is pulling all 2,000
U.S. troops out of Syria, officials
announced Wednesday as the presi
dent suddenly declared victory over
the Islamic State, contradicting
his own experts’ assessments and
sparking surprise and outrage from
his party’s lawmakers who called
his action rash and dangerous.
The U.S. began airstrikes in
Syria in 2014, and ground troops
moved in the following year to
battle the Islamic State, or ISIS,
and train Syrian rebels in a coun
try torn apart by civil war. Trump
abruptly declared their mission
accomplished in a tweet.
“We have defeated ISIS in Syria,
my only reason for being there
during the Trump Presidency,”
he said as Vice President Mike
Pence met with top leaders at the
Pentagon. U.S. officials said many
details of the troop withdrawal had
not yet been finalized, but they
expect American forces to be out
by mid-January.
Later Wednesday, Trump posted
a video on Twitter in which he said
is “heartbreaking” to have to write
letters and make calls to the loved
ones of those killed in battle. “Now
it’s time for our troops to come
back home,” he said.
A senior administration official,
speaking to reporters on condition
of anonymity, said Trump made
the decision based on his belief that
U.S. troops have no role in Syria
beyond combatting Islamic State,
whose fighters are now believed to
hold about 1 percent of the territory
they did at the peak of their power.
The president informed Turkish
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of
his decision in a telephone call, the
official said. Turkey has recently
warned that it would launch com
bat operations across its southern
border into northeastern Syria
against Kurdish forces who have
been allied with the U.S. in the fight
against the Islamic State.
Trump’s declaration of victory
was far from unanimous, and offi
cials said U.S. defense and military
leaders were trying to dissuade
him from ordering the withdrawal
right up until the last minute. His
decision immediately triggered
demands from Congress — includ
ing leading Republicans — for
more information and a formal
briefing on the matter. Sen. Lind
say Graham of South Carolina, just
returned from Afghanistan, said
he was meeting with Defense Sec
retary Jim Mattis late in the day.
Graham, typically a Trump
backer, said he was “blindsided”
by the report and called the deci
sion “a disaster in the making.” He
said, “The biggest winners in this
are ISIS and Iran.”
The decision will fulfill Trump’s
long-stated goal of bringing troops
home from Syria, but military lead
ers have pushed back for months,
arguing that the IS group remains a
threat and could regroup in Syria’s
long-running civil war. U.S. policy
has been to keep troops in place
until the extremists are eradicated.
MANUEL BALCE CENETAI Associated Press
The senior administration offi
cial said American forces would
still work with allies to fight the
Islamic State or other extremists
in the country but gave no details
on what that might entail.
Another official said it still is not
clear to defense leaders whether
U.S. airstrikes against IS insur
gents will continue in Syria after
the American troops leave. U.S.
military officials worry that Amer
ican-backed Kurdish troops will be
targeted by Turkey and the Syrian
government, leaving no ally on the
ground to help direct the strikes.
Israeli Prime Minister Ben
jamin Netanyahu, who remains
concerned about Iranian efforts in
the area, reacted in noncommittal
fashion after talking with Trump
by telephone.
“This is, of course, an American
decision,” he said. No matter what,
he said, “we will safeguard the
security of Israel and protect our
selves from this arena. ”
Leading Republican senators
reacted with displeasure to the
news.
Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida said
the withdrawal would be a “grave
error” and that Kurdish fighters will
stop fighting the Islamic State when
they must confront Turkish troops
crossing the border into Syria.
“This is a bad idea because it
goes against the fight against ISIS
and potentially helps ISIS,” he said,
warning it could trigger a broader
conflict in the region.
Just last week, the U.S. special
envoy to the anti-ISIS coalition,
Brett McGurk, said U.S. troops
would remain in Syria even after
the Islamic State was driven from
its strongholds.
“ I think it’s fair to say Americans
will remain on the ground after
the physical defeat of the caliph
ate, until we have the pieces in
place to ensure that that defeat is
enduring,” McGurk told reporters
on Dec. 11. “Nobody is declaring a
mission accomplished. Defeating a
physical caliphate is one phase of a
much longer-term campaign.”
And two weeks ago Gen. Joseph
Dunford, chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff, said the U.S. still has
a long way to go in training local
Syrian forces to prevent a resur
gence of IS and stabilize the coun
try. He said it will take 35,000 to
40,000 local troops in northeastern
Syria to maintain security over the
long term, but only about 20 percent
of that number have been trained.
Trump’s national security
adviser, John Bolton, said in Sep
tember that the U.S. would keep a
military presence in Syria as long
as Iran was active there. “We’re
not going to leave as long as Ira
nian troops are outside Iranian
borders and that includes Iranian
proxies and militias,” he said.
100 days to Brexit: EU, UK act
to cushion turmoil of no-deal
Associated Press
LONDON — The Euro
pean Union marked 100 days
until Brexit on Wednesday by
triggering an action plan to
ensure planes can still fly and
money can still flow between
Britain and the bloc in the
increasingly likely event that
the U.K. leaves the EU with
out a divorce deal.
The British government,
struggling to break a politi
cal logjam over Brexit,
released immigration plans
that it said will “take back
control” of the country’s
borders — but which oppo
nents warn will batter the
economy by shutting out
everyone but highly paid
professionals.
The EU measures,
announced a day after Brit
ain ramped up its own no
deal planning, are intended
to alleviate “major disrup
tion” to people and busi
nesses in case squabbling
U.K. politicians fail to ratify
a withdrawal agreement
between Britain and the bloc.
European Commission
Vice President Valdis Dom-
brovskis called the contin
gency plan “an exercise in
limiting damage.”
Britain is due to leave
the EU on March 29, but it’s
unclear whether lawmak
ers will approve the divorce
agreement Prime Minister
Theresa May’s government
has negotiated with the bloc.
May postponed a vote in Par
liament last week because
the deal faced heavy defeat.
It has been rescheduled for
mid-January, but opposition
remains strong across the
political spectrum.
Leaving without a deal
risks plunging the British
economy into recession and
sparking chaos at the bor
ders, as four decades of eco
nomic alignment and open
markets evaporate.
The EU plan includes tem
porary one- to two-year mea
sures to allow some U.K.-EU
financial services to continue
and a 12-month provision to
keep planes flying between
Britain and the bloc.
But Dombrovskis stressed
that the measures “cannot
replicate the benefits of
the withdrawal agreement,
and certainly it cannot rep
licate the benefits of EU
membership.”
Britain’s no-deal prepara
tions include putting 3,500
soldiers on standby, charter
ing boats to bring in goods
and stockpiling medicines.
The government called
them sensible precautions,
but opposition politicians
accused May of trying to
scare lawmakers into sup
porting her Brexit deal.
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