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TODAYS TOP HEADLINES
The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com
Thursday, December 27, 2018 3A
IRAQ
Trump makes surprise US troop trip
ANDREW HARNIKI Associated Press
President Donald Trump kisses first lady Melania Trump during a hanger
rally at Al Asad Air Base, Iraq, Wednesday, Dec. 26.
BY DARLENE SUPERVILLE
Associated Press
AL-ASAD AIRBASE, Iraq — In
a surprise trip to Iraq, President
Donald Trump on Wednesday
defended his decision to withdraw
U.S. forces from Syria where they
have been helping battle Islamic
State militants.
“We’re no longer the suckers,
folks,” Trump told American ser
vicemen and women at a base in
western Iraq. “We’re respected
again as a nation.”
Trump said it’s because of U.S.
military gains that he can withdraw
2,000 forces from Syria. During
his first visit to a troubled region,
Trump also said he has no plans to
withdraw U.S. forces from Iraq.
“I made it clear from the begin
ning that our mission in Syria was
to strip ISIS of its military strong
holds,” Trump told troops clad in
fatigues at al-Asad Airbase west of
Baghdad.
“Eight years ago, we went there
for three months and we never
left,” he said. “Now, we’re doing
it right and we’re going to finish it
off.”
He said that Turkish President
Recep Tayyip Erdogan has agreed
to take out “any remnants” of IS left
in Syria. The U.S. presence in Syria
was not meant to be “open-ended,”
he said, adding that other wealthy
nations should pay for rebuilding
Syria.
“The nations of the region must
step up and take more responsibil
ity for their future,” said Trump,
who said there would be a “strong,
deliberate and orderly withdrawal”
of U.S. forces from Syria.
Trump’s trip to Iraq came a week
after he stunned his national secu
rity advisers by announcing the U.S.
troop withdrawal from Syria.
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis
abruptly resigned following the
announcement, and Trump’s deci
sion rattled allies around the world,
including in Iraq.
Trump’s trip was shrouded in
secrecy. Air Force One flew over
night from Washington, landing at
an airbase west of Baghdad under
the cover of darkness Wednes
day evening. It is his first visit
with troops stationed in a troubled
region.
Fifteen years after the 2003 inva
sion, the U.S. still has more than
5,000 troops in Iraq supporting the
government as it continues the fight
against remaining pockets of resis
tance by the Islamic State group.
IS has lost a significant amount of
territory in Iraq and Syria but is still
seen as a threat.
Trump, who speaks often about
his support for the U.S. military,
had faced criticism for not yet visit
ing U.S. troops stationed in harm’s
way as he comes up on his two-year
mark in office. He told The Associ
ated Press in an interview in Octo
ber that he “will do that at some
point, but I don’t think it’s overly
necessary.” He later began to sig
nal that such a troop visit was in
the offing.
Trump had planned to spend
Christmas at his private club in
Florida, but stayed behind in Wash
ington due to the shutdown. It’s
unclear whether his trip to Iraq
was added after it became appar
ent that the government would
be shut down indefinitely due to
a stalemate between Trump and
congressional Democrats over the
president’s demand for a wall along
the U.S.-Mexico border.
Adding to the tumult, the stock
market has been experiencing
heavy losses over concerns about
a slowing global economy, Trump’s
trade war with China and the presi
dent’s public slamming of the Fed
eral Reserve and its chairman over
interest rate hikes by the indepen
dent agency.
Trump’s visit comes at a time
when his Middle East policy is in
flux. He went against the views of
his top national security advisers in
announcing the Syria withdrawal,
a decision that risks creating a vac
uum for extremists to thrive.
There are dire implications in
particular for neighboring Iraq.
The Iraqi government now has
control of all the country’s cities,
towns and villages after fighting
its last urban battles against IS in
December 2017. But its political,
military and economic situation
remains uncertain, and the country
continues to experience sporadic
bombings, kidnappings and assas
sinations, which most people attri
bute to IS.
Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul-
Mahdi recently said Iraqi troops
could deploy into Syria to protect
Iraq from threats across its borders.
Iraq keeps reinforcements along its
frontier to guard against infiltration
by IS militants, who hold a pocket
of territory along the Euphrates
River.
Trump campaigned for office on
a platform of ending U.S. involve
ment in foreign trouble spots, such
as Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq.
The Syria decision will ultimately
affect all of the approximately 2,000
troops deployed in the war-torn
country. The Pentagon is also said
to be developing plans to withdraw
up to half of the 14,000 American
troops still serving in Afghanistan.
During the presidential cam
paign, Trump blamed Democrat
Hillary Clinton for the rise of IS,
due to the withdrawal of U.S. troops
from Iraq at the end of 2011 during
her tenure as secretary of state.
President George W. Bush is the
one who set the 2011 withdrawal
date as part of an agreement with
the Iraqi government to gradually
shrink the U.S. footprint and slowly
hand off security responsibilities to
the government and Iraqi security
forces.
His successor, President Barack
Obama, wanted to leave a residual
force in Iraq to help the govern
ment manage ongoing security
challenges. But he ultimately went
ahead with the scheduled pullout in
2011 after Iraqi’s political leaders
rejected terms the U.S. sought for
legal protections for the U.S. troops
that would have remained.
ANDREW HARNIK I Associated Press
The Capitol building is visible as a man who declined to give his name picks up garbage
and stacks it near a trash can during a partial government shutdown on the National Mall in
Washington, Tuesday, Dec. 25.
President signals no end
to government shutdown
BY DARLENE SUPERVILLE
AND JULIET LINDERMAN
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — A
shutdown affecting parts
of the federal government
appeared no closer to resolu
tion Wednesday, with Presi
dent Donald Trump and
congressional Democrats
locked in a hardening stand
off over border wall money
that threatens to carry over
into January.
Trump vowed to hold
the line, telling reporters
as he flew to Iraq that he’ll
do “whatever it takes” to
get money for border secu
rity. He declined to say how
much he would accept in a
deal to end the shutdown,
stressing the need for border
security.
“You have to have a wall,
you have to have protec
tion,” he said.
The shutdown started
Saturday when funding
lapsed for nine Cabinet-level
departments and dozens of
agencies. Roughly 420,000
workers were deemed essen
tial and are working unpaid,
while an additional 380,000
have been furloughed.
While the White House
was talking to congressio
nal Democrats — and staff
talks continued on Capitol
Hill — negotiations dragged
Wednesday, dimming hopes
for a swift breakthrough.
With no deal at hand,
members of the House were
told there would be no votes
on Thursday, assuring the
shutdown would last yet
another day. Lawmakers
are away from Washington
for the holidays and have
been told they will have 24
hours’ notice before hav
ing to return. The Senate is
slated to come into session
Thursday afternoon.
Rep. Mark Meadows of
North Carolina, a Trump ally
who has been involved in the
talks, said the president “is
very firm in his resolve that
we need to secure our bor
der.” He told CNN, “I don’t
know that there’s a lot of
progress that has been made
today.”
But he added of Demo
crats: “If they believe that
this president is going to
yield on this particular issue,
they’re misreading him.”
The impasse over gov
ernment funding began
last week, when the Sen
ate approved a bipartisan
deal keeping government
open into February. That
bill provided $1.3 billion for
border security projects but
not money for the wall. At
Trump’s urging, the House
approved that package and
inserted the $5.7 billion he
had requested.
On Friday afternoon,
a Senate procedural vote
showed that Republicans
lacked the 60 votes they’d
need to force the mea
sure with the wall funding
through their chamber. That
jump-started negotiations
between Congress and the
White House, but the dead
line came and went without
a deal.
Senate Minority Leader
Charles Schumer of New
York on Saturday said fund
ing for Trump’s wall will
“never pass the Senate.”
“So President Trump, if
you want to open the gov
ernment, you must abandon
the wall, plain and simple,”
Schumer said.
House Minority Leader
Nancy Pelosi is in lockstep
with Schumer against the
wall funding. If the shut
down continues into 2019,
she has vowed that her new
Democratic majority will
act quickly to pass legislation
reopening the government.
The shutdown has been
playing out against the back
drop of turmoil in the stock
market, which is having a
roller-coaster week.
EARLY DEADLINES FOR
NEW YEARS DAY
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Thursday
1/3
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She Sfmes
gainesvilletimes •com
will be CLOSED Tuesday,
January 1st, in observance of New Years Day
Deaths of migrant children raise
doubts about US border agency
BY NOMAAN MERCHANT
Associated Press
HOUSTON — The
deaths of two migrant
children in just over two
weeks raised strong new
doubts Wednesday about
the ability of U.S. border
authorities to care for
the thousands of minors
arriving as part of a surge
of families trying to enter
the country.
An 8-year-old boy iden
tified by Guatemalan
officials as Felipe Gomez
Alonzo died in U.S. cus
tody at a New Mexico
hospital on Christmas
Eve after suffering a
cough, vomiting and
fever, authorities said.
The cause is under inves
tigation, as is the death
Dec. 8 of another Guate
malan child, 7-year-old
Jakelin Caal.
“There is a real failure
here that we all need to
reckon with,” said incom
ing Rep. Veronica Esco
bar, a Democrat elected
last month to represent
El Paso in Congress. “We
need to know how many
other Jakelins and Feli
pes there have been.”
Felipe had been
detained by U.S. border
authorities for a week
and moved between
facilities with his father,
officials said. The last
place the boy was held
— after the first of two
visits to the hospital on
the day he died — was a
highway checkpoint in
New Mexico.
By its own regulations,
U.S. Customs and Border
Protection is supposed to
detain people for no more
than 72 hours before turning
them over to other govern
ment agencies responsible
for long-term detention. CBP
facilities are typically spar
tan, with food, water and
blankets but often no medi
cal professionals, teachers or
some of the other resources
longer-term detention cen
ters offer.
Similarly, Jakelin was
first held with her father at
a small base in rural New
Mexico that did not have
running water, according
to Democrats who visited it
after the girl’s death.
The U.S. government’s
system for detaining
migrants crossing the bor
der is severely overtaxed.
Authorities would not say
how many children CBP is
now holding. But the U.S. is
seeing a sharp rise in fami
lies with children.
Homeland Security
Kirstjen Nielsen on Wednes
day blamed “a system that
prevents parents who bring
their children on a danger
ous illegal journey from fac
ing consequences for their
actions.”
Her department argues
that it must detain more
people to discourage other
Central American families
from trying to migrate.
In the wake of the deaths,
Nielsen asked the Coast
Guard to study CBP’s medi
cal programs and announced
a “more thorough” assess
ment of all children who
enter the agency’s custody.
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