The Washington Post - 24.10.2019

T H U R S D A Y , O C T O B E R  2 4,  2 0 1 9 .  T H E  W A S H I N G T O N  P O S T EZ RE A

president’s promise?

Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-

S.C.) opposed the withdrawal

but gave cautious backing for

the “safe zone” Trump says is

being created along the border.

He made clear he still thinks

there is a risk of resurgent

Islamic State terrorism that only

a U.S. presence can reliably

counter.

“While I agree that America is

not the policeman of the world, I

firmly believe the American

military is the most capable to

protect America and should be

used wisely to do so,” Graham

said.

Trump is selling voters a

different message.

“How many Americans must

die in the Middle East in the

midst of these ancient sectarian

and tribal conflicts?” Trump

asked rhetorically as he

announced the lifting of

punitive sanctions meant to

deter Turkey.

The language echoed the

nativist isolationism that

shocked his political opponents

as Trump outmaneuvered them

during the 2016 election and

that he plans to employ during

his 2020 campaign.

“Turkey, Syria, and all forms

of the Kurds, have been fighting

for centuries,” he said, implying

that that was really none of

America’s concern. “We have

done them a great service, and

we’ve done a great job for all of

them. And now we’re getting

out.”

anne.gearan@washpost.com

concerned about Russia’s newly

expanded role.

“I think we always watch the

Russians warily, wherever they

are,” the official said. “And so,

the deal between Turkey and the

Russians is something that’s

between them. We did not have

any role to play in that.”

That’s just the problem, Sen.

Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) suggested

in a tweet Wednesday.

“Erdogan has NOT agreed to

stop all military operations in

#Syria,” he wrote, referring to

the Turkish president, whom

Trump has invited to visit the

White House next month.

“#Russia is going to:

-Remove Kurdish forces from

east & west of current Turk

controlled areas, including

Kurdish cities

-Help #Turkey push all SDF

forces 30km south from entire

border

-Take control of 5 oil fields”

Trump said a small number of

U.S. forces will stay behind in

northern Syria to guard oil

infrastructure. The

administration official who

spoke to reporters would not

provide additional details about

the number or location of those

forces. Some troops are also

temporarily being stationed in

Iraq.

While Trump claims those

troops will come home soon, his

administration will face a

dilemma if tensions in Syria rise:

Keep those troops there to help

stabilize the region or send them

home anyway to fulfill the

America’s role more broadly in

the world, which has been

founded for 70 years on

American credibility.”

Trump did not mention the

deal between Turkey and Russia

reached Tuesday that pushes

Syrian Kurdish fighters from a

wide belt of Syrian territory just

south of Turkey’s border and

seals the Russian dominance in

Syria as the United States steps

aside.

Trump did not mention

Russia by name at all.

A senior administration

official, who spoke on the

condition of anonymity to

expand on the president’s

remarks in a call with reporters

later Wednesday, was asked

whether the White House is

back, bring them back.”

Foreign-policy experts along

with many lawmakers in both

parties continue to warn that

Trump has made a foolhardy

decision, and if the situation in

Syria quickly deteriorates,

Trump will own it ahead of the

election.

“The president might have a

case that this is a rather minor

tactical decision on the ground

in a small part of the world that

doesn’t have a core American

interest, but he’s wrong in the

assessment that it doesn’t have

broader implications,” said

Douglas Lute, a former U.S.

ambassador to NATO. “That may

play well to the president’s base,

but it doesn’t play well to

anybody who understands

treasure and lives in pursuit of

high-minded internationalist

ideals anathema to his

nationalist world view.

“As a candidate for president,

I made clear that we needed a

new approach to American

foreign policy, one guided not by

ideology, but by experience,

history, and a realistic

understanding of the world,” he

said from a lectern in the White

House’s Diplomatic Reception

Room.

He claimed that his bold

action in yanking forces had

been a much-needed change.

The cease-fire and longer-term

security along the border would

not have happened without the

brief fighting that followed the

U.S. exit and Turkish invasion,

he said.

“This was an outcome created

by us, the United States, and

nobody else, no other nation.

Very simple. And we’re willing to

take blame, and we’re also

willing to take credit,” Trump

said.

Trump is banking on getting

the credit come election time, at

least from the ardent supporters

he is hoping to turn out in

droves for his reelection effort.

His call to withdraw troops has

become an applause line at his

recent rallies.

“American combat troops

should not be at the center of

ancient sectarian conflicts all

over the world. Bring our

soldiers back home,” he said in

Dallas last week to crowd chants

of “Bring them back, bring them

In President
Trump’s telling
Wednesday, his
withdrawal of all
but a few U.S.
forces from Syria
makes good on
his promise to shake off the sand
of faraway Middle East conflicts
and to let other countries play
policeman for a change.
Trump hopes his decision will
please his most loyal political
supporters, who tend to love it
when he pokes a finger in the
eye of the naysayers. Thus,
Trump proudly owned what his
critics see as a debacle born of
willful ignorance.
“Let someone else fight over
this long-bloodstained sand,”
Trump said at the White House.
He declared a “major
breakthrough” as a U.S.-backed
cease-fire along the Syrian-
Turkish border largely held and
claimed that he is saving
American and Kurdish lives
while pulling the plug on
indefinite U.S. military
commitments.
Even close political allies of
Trump’s have called it a blunder
to abandon Syrian Kurdish allies
and open the door to Russian
and Turkish control of a
strategic crossroads between the
Middle East and Europe.
But Trump has taken to
wearing their scorn as a badge of
honor — evidence not that he
has made a foolish decision but
that he is breaking with foreign
policy conventions he has
derided as costing too much

Trump tries to rebrand Syria exit as a political promise he kept to supporters

The
Debrief

ANNE
GEARAN

BY NICK ANDERSON

A California writer known for
dispensing advice on parenting
was sentenced Wednesday to
three weeks in prison for schem-
ing to buy a fraudulent college
admission test score for her son,
prosecutors announced.
Jane Buckingham, author of
“The Modern Girl’s Guide to
Motherhood,” became the 10th
parent to receive prison time
among the 11 sentenced so far in
the college admission bribery
scandal. Prison terms for others

have ranged as high as five

months. Prosecutors had recom-

mended six months of incarcera-

tion for Buckingham.

At a hearing in Boston, U.S.

District Judge Indira Talwani sen-

tenced Buckingham to three

weeks behind bars, one year of

supervised release and a $40,

fine, according to the U.S. Attor-

ney’s Office in Massachusetts.

Buckingham, 51, of Los Angeles,

pleaded guilty in May to one count

of conspiracy to commit mail fraud

and honest-services mail fraud. She

admitted she had agreed to pay ad-

mission consultant William “Rick”

Singer $50,000 to arrange for a cor-

rupt test proctor to take the ACT for

her son in 2018.

Court records show the son pre-

viously had obtained two strong

ACT scores on his own, ranking in

the 92nd and 94th percentiles.

But Buckingham worried that

would not be good enough to get

him into the University of South-

ern California, records show, so

she plotted with Singer to get a

better score. She supplied Singer

with a sample of her son’s hand-

writing to help the proctor cheat.

“I know this is craziness,” Buck-

ingham told Singer in a telephone

call, according to court records. “I

know it is. And then I need you to

get him into USC, and then I need

you to cure cancer and [make

peace] in the Middle East.”

The fraudulent score the son

received was 35 out of a possible

36, and Buckingham ultimately

paid $35,000, according to court

records. The son was unaware of

the cheating, prosecutors said,

and was not charged with any

crime.

Singer, mastermind of the scan-

dal’s bribery schemes, has plead-

ed guilty to racketeering conspira-

cy and other crimes.

Buckingham, a marketing ex-

ecutive, made a name for herself

as a provider of practical tips for

working moms. In a promotional

video, she said: “You know, at the

end of the day, all we really want to

know is how do we raise confi-

dent, self-reliant kids. Well, guess

what — if you want to have a

confident kid, you need to be a

confident parent.”

This month, she apologized for

her crime in a letter to the judge.

“I have hurt the parents and

students who don’t have the re-

sources my family has,” Bucking-

ham wrote. “My actions showed

them that, in a system already

stacked against them, people with

more money and resources were

finding yet another advantage

that they did not deserve and were

not entitled to. That is not right.

“I know that I can never truly

make amends to these other stu-

dents and families, but I will

spend the rest of my life trying,”

she wrote.

nick.anderson@washpost.com

Parenting guru gets 3-week prison sentence in college admissions scandal

JABIN BOTSFORD/THE WASHINGTON POST

President Trump says the cease-fire on the Syrian-Turkish border

would not have happened without the fighting after the U.S. exit.

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