What Trump gets wrong about war against the Islamic State

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What Trump gets wrong about war against the Islamic State

2019-10-23 04:05 Last Updated At：04:10

President Donald Trump has made several incorrect or misleading statements about the five-year battle against the Islamic State group as he seeks to end what he calls "endless wars" and explain an abrupt abandonment of America's Kurdish partners in the face of a Turkish offensive.

He has gotten his facts wrong on at least five key points about the conflict.

TRUMP: THE U.S.-LED EFFORT TO DEFEAT THE ISLAMIC STATE GROUP WAS "A MESS" BEFORE I TOOK OFFICE.

It's true that he accelerated the military push in Syria, in part by giving U.S. commanders in the field more authority. But it was during the Obama administration that the Kurdish-led force was recruited, organized and trained to root out the Islamic State group.

Trump also incorrectly said on Monday that U.S. forces have been in Syria for 10 years.

The U.S. military under Obama began its push to counter the Islamic State group, sometimes referred to as the IS group or ISIS, starting in the summer of 2014. The effort started in Iraq, where the extremists had captured much of the northern and western parts of the country, including the key cities of Ramadi and Mosul. In Iraq, unlike in Syria, U.S. forces had a viable partner in the Iraqi government.

Ash Carter, who headed the Pentagon from early 2015 until Trump was inaugurated in January 2017, has acknowledged, "We took longer than we should have to get our act together" on an effective strategy to deal the Islamic State group a lasting defeat. But the campaign was hardly a "mess" when Trump took over.

In fact, Mosul in Iraq and Raqqa in Syria were on the verge of falling, and the elements for military success were largely in place. Iraq declared victory over the Islamic State group in December 2017, and the U.S.-backed Kurdish forces declared victory in Syria in March of this year. It remains an open question whether those successes will prove lasting.

TRUMP HAS ASSERTED THAT THE ISLAMIC STATE GROUP IS DEFEATED. "WE KILLED ISIS," HE SAID ON OCT. 12.

No one disputes that the Islamic State group has lost its "caliphate" — the large swath of territory it once controlled in parts of Syria and Iraq. But the group remains a threat to reemerge if the conditions that allowed its rise, including civil war in Syria and a lack of effective governance in Iraq, are not corrected.

Republican Sen. Liz Cheney of Wyoming said when Turkey launched its offensive into northern Syria on Oct. 9 that it was "impossible to understand" why Trump was abandoning the Kurds and "enabling the return of ISIS."

Another concern is that the chaos triggered by the Oct. 9 Turkish incursion, which followed Trump's decision to have about two dozen American troops step away from the attack zone, could allow larger numbers of Islamic State fighters to escape from prisons that have been operated by the Kurds now under attack.

TRUMP HAS SAID SEVERAL TIMES THAT U.S. TROOPS INVOLVED IN THE ANTI-ISLAMIC STATE CAMPAIGN ARE COMING HOME.

For now, at least, that is not true. Most of the roughly 1,000 troops leaving Syria are going to Iraq, at least temporarily, or to other locations in the Middle East such as Jordan. The Pentagon says it is still working on plans for how to continue the anti-IS campaign in Syria and Iraq.

"We're bringing our soldiers back home," Trump said Monday.

Hogan Gidley, a deputy White House press secretary, said Trump is referring to a goal that must be balanced with other considerations.

"The president does want to ultimately bring all these troops home," Gidley said. "That was his goal when he ran for office. That's what he wants to do now. But he also wants to ensure stability in the region."

TRUMP SAYS THE U.S. CONTROLS SYRIA'S OIL.

"We've taken control" of it, he said Oct. 18, referring to the oil. Three days later, he recalled his argument that when the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003, it should have taken Iraq's oil. "I always said, 'If you're going in, keep the oil.' Same thing here (in Syria). Keep the oil."

In fact, it is by law Syria's oil.

Trump says he is considering a plan for a small number of U.S. troops to remain in the oil-producing region of eastern Syria so that the Islamic State group or someone else cannot take control of the oilfields and use them to generate revenue, such as through oil smuggling.

TRUMP, NINE DAYS INTO THE TURKISH ONSLAUGHT: THE SYRIAN KURDS ARE "VERY HAPPY ABOUT THE WAY THINGS ARE GOING."

The commander of the Kurdish forces, Mazloum Abdi, has welcomed the U.S.-brokered cease-fire along a limited portion of the Syria-Turkey border, but he also has been quoted by news organizations as saying he feels betrayed by the U.S.

With U.S. forces leaving, the Kurds face the possibility of a grim future. A Turkish takeover would mean crushing the self-rule they had carved out in the northeast amid Syria's long-running civil war. They also fear massive demographic change, as Kurdish civilians flee Turkish control and mainly Arab Syrian refugees move in.

Venice launches experiment to charge day-trippers an access fee in bid to combat over-tourism

2024-04-25 17:37 Last Updated At：17:41

VENICE, Italy (AP) — Under the gaze of the world’s media, the fragile lagoon city of Venice launched a pilot program Thursday to charge day-trippers a 5-euro (around $5.35) entry fee that authorities hope will discourage visitors from arriving on peak days and make the city more livable for its dwindling residents.

Visitors arriving at Venice's main train station were greeted with large signs listing the 29 dates through July of the plan's test phase, as well as new entrances separating tourists from residents, students and workers.

Stewards were on hand to politely guide anyone unaware of the new requirements through the process of downloading the QR code to pay the fee.

“We need to find a new balance between the tourists and residents,’’ said the city’s top tourism official, Simone Venturini. “We need to safeguard the spaces of the residents, of course, and we need to discourage the arrival of day-trippers on some particular days.”

Arianna Cecilia, who lives in Rome and was visiting Venice for the first time with her boyfriend, said it felt “strange" to have to buy a ticket to enter a city in her native Italy, and then pass through a tourist entrance.

The couple were staying in nearby Treviso, and had paid the fee and downloaded the QR code as required prior to arrival.

Workers in yellow vests carried out random checks at the train station, and anyone caught faces fines of 50 euros to 300 euros — though officials said “common sense” was being applied for the launch.

The requirement applies only for people arriving between 8:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. Outside of those hours, access is free and unchecked.

Venice has long suffered under the pressure of over-tourism, and officials hope the pilot project can help provide more exact figures to better manage the phenomenon.

The city can track the number of hotel visitors — which last year numbered 4.6 million, down 16% from pre-pandemic highs. But the number of day visitors, which make up the majority of the crowds in Venice, could only be estimated until recently.

A Smart Control Room set up during the pandemic has been tracking arrivals from cell phone data, roughly confirming pre-pandemic estimates of 25 million to 30 million arrivals a year, said Michele Zuin, the city’s top economic official. That includes both day-trippers and overnight guests.

But Zuin said the data is incomplete. “It’s clear we will get more reliable data from the contribution” being paid by day-trippers, he said.

Venturini said the city is strained when the number of day-trippers reaches 30,000 to 40,000. Its narrow alleyways are clogged with people and water taxis packed, making it difficult for residents to go about their business.

Not all residents, however, are persuaded of the efficacy of the new system in dissuading mass tourism. Some say more attention needs to be paid to boosting the resident population and services they need.

Venice last year passed a telling milestone when the number of tourist beds exceeded for the first time the number of official residents, which is now below 50,000 in the historic center with its picturesque canals.

“Putting a ticket to enter a city will not decrease not even by one single unit the number of visitors that are coming,’’ said Tommaso Cacciari, an activist who organized a protest Thursday against the measure.

“You pay a ticket to take the metro, to go to a museum, an amusement park; you don’t pay a ticket to enter a city. This is the last symbolic step of a project of an idea of this municipal administration to kick residents out of Venice,” he said.

Venturini said about 6,000 people had already paid to download the QR code, and officials expect paid day-tripper arrivals Thursday to reach some 10,000.

More than 70,000 others have downloaded a QR code denoting an exemption, including to work in Venice or as a resident of the Veneto region. People staying in hotels in Venice, including in mainland districts like Marghera or Mestre, should get a QR code attesting to their stay, which includes a hotel tax.

The tourist official says interest in Venice's pilot program has been keen from other places suffering from mass tourism, including other Italian art cities and cities abroad such as Barcelona and Amsterdam.

Marina Rodino, who has lived in Venice for 30 years, is opposed to the new plan. She was passing out mock EU passports for “Venice, Open City,” underlining the irony of the new system, and challenging its legal standing with citations from the Italian constitution guaranteeing its citizens the right to “move or reside freely in any part of the national territory."

Rodino has seen her local butcher close and families leave her neighborhood near the famed Rialto Bridge as short-term apartment rentals spring up. But she said the new entrance fee requirement will still allow young people to flood the city in the evening for often rowdy gatherings.

“This is not a natural oasis. This is not a museum. It is not Pompeii," she said. “It is a city, where we need to fight so the houses are inhabited by families, and stores reopen. That is what would counter this wild tourism.”