Donald Trump wants to end endless wars. Flirting with isolationism won't get him there. - USA TODAY
Donald Trump wants to end endless wars. Flirting with isolationism won't get him there. - USA TODAY |
- Donald Trump wants to end endless wars. Flirting with isolationism won't get him there. - USA TODAY
- America once led anti-corruption fight. Now self-dealing Trump is kleptocrats' role model. - USA TODAY
- The impeachment inquiry stage is set - USA TODAY
- Donald Trump's likely next sports event: The Ultimate Fighting Championship - USA TODAY
- Facebook doesn't have to run paid ads peddling politicians' lies - USA TODAY
| Posted: 31 Oct 2019 04:47 PM PDT
More than 200,000 U.S. troops are stationed worldwide, serving to safeguard U.S. security and interests by preserving a stable world order: Our viewIn his rash decision to suddenly pull U.S. troops out of Syria — creating a power vacuum that risks a resurgence of defeated Islamic State terrorists — President Donald Trump enshrined as policy a campaign pledge to end foreign entanglements. "Let someone else fight over this long-bloodstained sand," Trump said of Syria on Oct. 23, after explaining earlier that his broader "plan is to get out of endless wars, to bring our soldiers back home, to not be policing agents all over the world." As enticing as this might sound to some Americans, the reality is that Trump hasn't done anything of the sort. And if he did, it would be a disaster for national and global security. Guarding oil fields in SyriaHe has ended no wars. It's true he's withdrawing several hundred U.S. combat troops from northeastern Syria, largely special operations soldiers who were effectively working with Syrian Kurdish-Arab fighters to prevent ISIS elements from reforming. But they haven't come home. They're going to Iraq. And American armored units are being sent back into Syria to guard oil fields, so the difference will largely be a wash. Moreover, in a separate and unrelated move, about 1,800 U.S. troops are going to Saudi Arabia to deter Iranian aggression. SEN. TOM UDALL: Endless war is distracting from pressing national security threats Beyond the Middle East, more than 200,000 U.S. troops are positioned around the globe, quietly serving — without engaging in combat or suffering any killed-in-action casualties — to safeguard U.S. security and interests by preserving a stable world order. They train and support a network of allied forces, guarantee freedom of navigation for 90% of world commerce, preserve access to energy, allow rapid dispatch of humanitarian aid and, ultimately, prevent the kind of endless wars Americans worry about. Tens of thousands of U.S. troops stationed in Japan, South Korea, the Middle East and Europe act, with local forces in each region, as a buffer against a growing Chinese militarism in the South China Sea, a nuclear-armed dictator threatening from North Korea, Iranian menacing in the Persian Gulf and Russian military aggression along NATO's eastern flank in Europe. There are also 14,000 troops in Afghanistan, 5,200 in Iraq and, until Trump's recent announcement, a thousand or more in Syria, fighting with and through local forces to target terrorist elements at their source. 'They can't walk to our country'In arguing to bring troops home, he has invoked a 19th century isolationist view that the United States is protected from harm by oceans. "They can't walk to our country," Trump said of ISIS fighters. "We have lots of water in between our country and them." Perhaps he has forgotten how malign actors have influenced U.S. elections or inspired mass murder in the USA by radical disciples, all via a 21st century internet. Or how al-Qaida terrorists based in Afghanistan killed nearly 3,000 people in America on Sept. 11, 2001. Under a framework of projected America power, along with a series of mutual defense agreements, the United States has succeeded since World War II in preventing the kind of global wars that killed tens of millions early in the 20th century. Ordering America's troops to pack up and go home would make neither America nor the world a safer place. If you can't see this reader poll, please refresh your page. Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2019/10/31/donald-trump-wants-end-endless-wars-isolationism-wont-editorials-debates/4100275002/  |
| Posted: 31 Oct 2019 05:00 AM PDT
CLOSE  U.S. and Ukraine relations go further back than the now infamous phone call between Trump and Zelensky. We explain their relationship. Just the FAQs, USA TODAY
Before Trump, America pioneered laws and diplomacy to curb corruption, and other countries followed our lead. Now we're a global model for kleptocrats.In announcing he would not, after all, award the 2020 summit of the Group of Seven major industrial nations to his own resort in Florida, President Donald Trump tweeted, "I thought I was doing something very good for our Country," and disparaged the "Crazed and Irrational Hostility" of his critics. Even in backing down, Trump rejects any expectation that he should separate his public office from his business interests. Awarding himself the G-7 summit was especially audacious not least because in 2016, the G-7 committed to fighting corruption specifically in government contracts. But this brazen attempt at self-dealing was consistent with the Trump administration's long record of retreating from America's bipartisan role as a leader in the fight against global corruption. Trump retreat from corruption fightThe United States has long understood that corruption has profoundly corrosive and transnational ripple effects. Where there is impunity for official corruption, government itself becomes a means for the elite to enrich itself and silence its critics. Corruption allowed to fester breeds poverty, violence and instability that can have far reaching consequences. Human Rights Watch, the World Bank and others have documented how corruption often disproportionately harms the poor, denying them access to basic rights such as health, education and fair trials. Recognizing this, the United States has pioneered groundbreaking efforts to curb corruption through its laws, enforcement and diplomacy. When the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act prohibited U.S. companies from bribing foreign officials in 1977, no other country had a similar law, but similar laws have since been enacted by the United Kingdom, Canada, Brazil, France and many other countries. The 2010 Dodd-Frank Act required publicly traded oil, gas and mining companies to publish what they pay to foreign governments, a provision that inspired copycat laws in Canada, the European Union and Norway. Also in 2010, the Department of Justice established an innovative kleptocracy asset recovery initiative, dedicated to seizing illicit funds laundered in the United States and returning them for the benefit of the public from whom they were stolen. The United States, however, has retreated from this role under Trump, who once disparaged the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act as "ridiculous" and a "terrible law." The Dodd-Frank transparency provision hasn't yet gone into effect because Congress, with Trump's support, repealed the federal rule creating the disclosure requirement and has yet to propose a replacement. The Trump administration also withdrew the United States from the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, a global standard for transparency around natural resources. Ukraine to Guatemala, walking awayBut it's more than that. The Trump administration sought to cut funding for foreign anti-corruption programs, including in Ukraine. And it has noticeably demurred using its formidable diplomatic leverage to combat corruption in places where America's voice was once decisive. There is perhaps no better example of this transformation and its enormous stakes for the rights of ordinary citizens than Guatemala. Endemic corruption in Guatemala has allowed organized crime to thrive, fueling grave abuses. Yet the Trump administration helped strangle a fledgling anti-corruption commission in Guatemala, which shuttered its doors in September. The International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala, known as CICIG, was backed by the United Nations and founded in 2007 with the strong support of President George W. Bush. The United States, its top donor, had given it $44 million. Don't praise Trump for G-7 reversal: It was an intolerable abuse of power. In 2015, when then-President Otto Pérez Molina threatened to end CICIG's mandate, he said he reversed course because the Obama administration made its continuation "practically a condition" for U.S. aid. Only months later, Pérez Molina was forced to resign after a CICIG investigation connected him to massive corruption. In sharp contrast, the Trump administration has stood by silently since Guatemala's latest president, Jimmy Morales, whom CICIG has also accused of corruption, announced last year that he would not extend the commission's mandate. Trump is role model for corruptionBeyond that, Trump's flagrant self-dealing, by echoing the language of kleptocrats, is itself a major blow to the fight against global corruption. Soon after he was elected, he told The New York Times he sees no problem pursuing his business interests during official meetings. "The president can't have a conflict of interest," he said. He has also refused to release his tax returns or divest from his complex web of international businesses, as all modern U.S. presidents have done. (He promised to put his businesses in a revocable trust run by his sons, although it would do little to resolve the risk of conflict of interest, and no trust agreement has been made public.) Since then, he has regularly used the presidency in ways that benefit his businesses — for example, making over 360 visits to properties he owns at enormous public expense. Trump's sleaze: Grifters, women, trampling Constitution and now G-7 at Doral In pursuing these open conflicts of interest, Trump gives cover to other kleptocrats who loot public funds. In one 2011 case, the Justice Department's anti-kleptocracy unit seized a private plane, California mansion and other assets belonging to Teodorin Obiang, son of the president of Equatorial Guinea, where I have spent years documenting corruption and its contributions to the dire state of health, education and human rights. Justice uncovered evidence detailing how officials, including the president's son, siphoned off millions in government funds by awarding enormous contracts to companies they own. Obiang's defense was that he did not break any laws because conflict of interest rules don't apply to senior officials. Justice vigorously protested this argument and ultimately settled the case for $30 million, which the agency must now repatriate for the benefit of ordinary Equatorial Guineans. Trump backed away from his most audacious attempt at self-dealing in the face of criticism from Republicans, but they were merely treating a symptom. They should return to the fight against corruption at home and abroad. Sarah Saadoun is a business and human rights researcher at Human Rights Watch. Follow her on Twitter: @sarah_saadoun Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2019/10/31/trump-boosts-kleptocrats-america-gives-up-corruption-fight-column/2476348001/  |
| The impeachment inquiry stage is set - USA TODAY Posted: 31 Oct 2019 03:52 PM PDT CLOSE Pigs are doomed. The impeachment inquiry just got real. A security company is being sketchy. It's all in today's news. But if you prefer to skip to the good stuff, scroll down for Short List dogs in Halloween costumes. It's Ashley. Here's the news to know Thursday. But first, what's your sign? Here are the scariest movies based on your horror scope (you know, astrological sign). The Short List newsletter is a snappy USA TODAY news roundup. Subscribe here! The process of impeachment has begunSetting the stage for the public phase of the inquiry, the House adopted rules Thursday for the impeachment investigation into President Donald Trump, a process Republicans have argued was secretive and unfair to this point. The vote, almost entirely along party lines, marked only the fourth time the full House authorized an impeachment inquiry. Oh, and there was a touch of drama (*sips tea*): The House erupted into brief chaos as Republicans shouted "OBJECTION!" as the resolution passed. The resolution sets rules for how the congressional committees leading the impeachment inquiry will hold public hearings and eventually funnel their findings to the House Judiciary Committee for the potential drafting of articles of impeachment. Cheap guards. A history of violence. How one company built its empireA security empire deployed guards with violent pasts across the U.S. Some went on to rape, assault or kill, according to a USA TODAY investigation. Our reporters spent more than a year investigating G4S, the largest private security company in the world, and found it has given power, authority and weapons to individuals who represent the very threat they are meant to guard against. Documents show the company's American subsidiaries have hired or retained at least 300 employees with questionable records, including criminal convictions, allegations of violence and prior law enforcement careers that ended in disgrace. What everyone's talking about25% of all pigs could die from swine feverPigs are in big trouble. At least a quarter of the world's pig population could die as a mass outbreak of African swine fever spreads, a global animal health organization says. The die-off would spark global pig shortages and spike pork prices, said Mark Schipp, president of the World Organization for Animal Health, calling the fever outbreak on Thursday "the biggest threat to any commercial livestock of our generation." The disease poses no threat of infection to humans. Back to school, Chicago kidsThe Chicago teachers strike ended Thursday with one last detail agreed on: teachers and students will have to make up five of the 11 days lost to the historic strike, the longest for teachers in the city since 1987. Negotiations came to a dramatic head Wednesday night at a raucous meeting where Chicago Teachers Union delegates voted to continue striking Thursday until the mayor agreed to make up lost instructional time – essentially, as the mayor put it, paying them for the days they were striking. Real quick'Dream came true': The Nats really did itThe Washington Nationals' Cinderella story has ended with the team hauling the World Series trophy back to the nation's capital for the first time since 1924. The Nationals, with a stunning 6-2 victory over the Houston Astros on Wednesday, pulled off one of the most dramatic turnarounds in baseball history to win the title. In the World Series, the Nationals lost all three games at home, won all four games on the road and went 5-0 in playoff elimination games, including the final Game 7 win. Happy Halloween from dogs of the Short List! 🎃 👻 🍫Some love Halloween for the candy. Some love it for the costumes. I just love it because it's a great excuse for me to solicit pictures of Short List dogs. I'll get to those, but real quick: Here are a few fun stories to get you all into the spooky season spirit: Now, for the moment you've been waiting all year for. Say "boo!" to a few (of the many!) dogs of The Short List, Halloween edition: Thank you to everyone who sent in pictures of your adorable dogs in costume! A special Halloween shoutout to: Tillie the Mystery Machine. Boomer the University of Oklahoma fan. Chanel the cowgirl Morkie. Piper the lobster. And, of course, Happy the lion. One more thing before you go: USA TODAY's editor-in-chief Nicole Carroll has launched a new newsletter, The Backstory. If you care about the news — and the stories behind the news — we recommend you sign up here. Expect it in your inboxes every Friday. This is a compilation of stories from across the USA TODAY Network. Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2019/10/31/halloween-impeachment-inquiry-pigs-teacher-strike-thursdays-news/4104487002/  |
| Donald Trump's likely next sports event: The Ultimate Fighting Championship - USA TODAY Posted: 31 Oct 2019 08:35 AM PDT CLOSE WASHINGTON – Less than a week after getting booed at the World Series, President Donald Trump is expected to attend a highly publicized mixed martial arts fight this weekend in New York City, according to his public schedule. The president plans to be in the crowd Saturday for Ultimate Fighting Championship 244, a pay-per-view event featuring a welterweight bout between Nate Diaz and Jorge Masvidal. The winner gets a belt emblazoned with the moniker BMF, which stands for "Bad Motherf-----." MMA, mixed martial arts, is an especially violent sport, featuring a combination of boxing, wrestling, jujitsu, and other martial arts, all fought within a cage. The president is expected to spend the weekend in his hometown of New York, potentially creating some traffic and security challenges. The New York City Marathon is scheduled take place Sunday. Trump is a longtime fan of UFC mixed-martial arts, and the admiration is mutual. Dana White, president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, a Trump supporter, said the president backed the sport in its infancy. "I'm never going to say anything bad about Donald Trump ... ever, ever, ever," White told the Fox News program "OBJECTified" in 2018. "That guy gave us our start when nobody would talk to us." In attending the UFC event, the president may be hoping for a friendlier crowd than the one that greeted him at Sunday's World Series baseball game between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros. Some fans at Nationals Park booed Trump while some chanted "Lock him up!" Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/10/31/donald-trumps-next-sports-event-ultimate-fighting-championship/4096068002/  |
| Facebook doesn't have to run paid ads peddling politicians' lies - USA TODAY Posted: 29 Oct 2019 02:15 PM PDT
CLOSE After criticism for failing to detect and purge election meddling in 2016, Facebook has made safeguarding elections one of its top priorities. USA TODAY
CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrapping himself in the First Amendment is a cop-out, something that several hundred Facebook employees noted in a letter: Our viewA Rolling Stone magazine writer once called the Goldman Sachs investment house a "great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity." A compelling image, to be sure. But if there is a metaphorical cephalopod nourishing itself at society's expense, it is not Goldman Sachs but, rather, Facebook. Just 15 years after its founding in a college dorm, and without producing any actual content to speak of, Facebook has become the most powerful global media organization in history. The company genuinely worries that it could be the platform on which revolution or civil war in some tinderbox of a country breaks out. And, despite its rising unpopularity, it has designs on managing the world's cryptocurrency. Fact-check politicians' adsYet for all its wealth and influence, for all it has done to alter the public discussion, and for all its global ambitions, Facebook says it can't, or won't, fact-check politicians' ads that run on its platform. In a speech at Georgetown University this month, founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrapped himself in the First Amendment, saying, "The most repressive societies have always restricted speech the most." This is, of course, a cop-out of the first order — something that several hundred Facebook employees have noted in a letter to Zuckerberg. FACEBOOK: We shouldn't become the gatekeeper of truth on candidate ads The issue is not whether government should tell Facebook what to do. It is, rather, whether Facebook should act reasonably and responsibly on its own to avoid being in the garbage distribution business. The American people, for their part, will surely not want the dominant social media company serving as a megaphone for peddling lies, wacko conspiracy theories and other forms of misinformation. To be clear, this debate isn't about whether Facebook needs to check on the accuracy of everything that its millions of users post. Rather, it is whether it should place some minimal standards on the accuracy of paid advertisements. 1934 law in multimedia worldFacebook has gotten to where it is, as an omnipresent company worth about half a trillion dollars, in part by siphoning advertising away from digital publications and television stations. By and large, these institutions fact-check political ads. A law dating to 1934 (which is outdated in today's multimedia world) requires broadcast stations to run ads from candidates as is. This does not apply to cable, satellite, wireless or the internet. The norm on these media is to grant politicians wide latitude with attack ads, but to not run those that are demonstrably and blatantly false. It's easy to see why Facebook would rather not try to police political discourse. Doing so can be controversial. It requires human judgment, not just algorithms. It is costly to be responsible. Rather than shelling out the money, Facebook tries to convince us that there is virtue in its irresponsibility. If you can't see this reader poll, please refresh your page. Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2019/10/29/facebook-shouldnt-run-paid-politicians-ads-peddling-lies-editorials-debates/2480508001/  |
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