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NANGARHAR, Afghanistan —President Trump stood in a mistydrizzle at Dover Air Force Base asthe remains of America’s latesttwo casualties in the long war inAfghanistan arrived home.

The somber silence was shat-tered by anguished cries from theyoung widow of Sgt. First ClassJavier J. Gutierrez, who sprintedtoward the plane as the metalcases holding her husband’s bodyand that of Sgt. First Class Anto-nio R. Rodriguez were beingpulled out. “No!” she screamed,calling out his name over and over.

Just hours before that brief cer-emony on Feb. 10, PresidentTrump had made a momentousdecision, giving his diplomats agreen light for a peace deal withthe Taliban that would lead to anAmerican troop withdrawal and,possibly, the beginning of the endof the United States’ longest war.

This was once called “the goodwar,” “the war of necessity.” WhenAmerican soldiers invaded Af-ghanistan in 2001 — driven by theSept. 11 Qaeda attacks on Ameri-can soil — and toppled the Tal-iban’s oppressive government,they were welcomed by largeparts of Afghan society.

But since then, the war has be-come a bleeding stalemate inwhich even some Afghan soldiersturn their guns on American serv-ice members, viewing them as in-vaders instead of partners. TheAmerican sergeants mourned atDover Air Force Base were killedby an Afghan soldier whose uni-form, salary and M249 light ma-chine gun were paid for by theUnited States.

Of the roughly 3,500 total Amer-ican and NATO deaths in this war,American officials say, more than150 have been killed in such“green-on-blue” attacks — as-saults so destructive to the Ameri-can mission that they have theirown terminology to describethem. The problem has been sopervasive that soldiers are as-signed to guard their Americancomrades who mix with Afghanforces. They have a special name,too: Guardian Angels.

When the war began, in the au-tumn of 2001, Sergeant Gutierrezand Sergeant Rodriguez were justboys. Sergeant Jawed, the AfghanArmy soldier with a single namewho would become their killer,was a toddler. By the time theirpaths crossed nearly two decadeslater in a dusty, eastern Afghanvillage, all three men had becomeold hands at war.

The Army’s Seventh SpecialForces Group that the twosergeants belonged to had been inAfghanistan just a few weeks. ButSergeant Gutierrez, of San Anto-nio, and Sergeant Rodriguez, ofLas Cruces, N.M., had joined in2009. Sergeant Gutierrez, a fatherof four, deployed to Iraq as an in-fantryman before heading to Af-ghanistan as a Green Beret.Sergeant Rodriguez had com-pleted 10 tours in Afghanistan,first as an Army Ranger and laterwith the Special Forces.

Their Special Forces team wasback in Afghanistan just as peace

A ‘Good War,’ Deteriorating After 18 Years

Afghans Attack U.S. asPeace Talks Forge On

This article is by Mujib Mashal,Katie Rogers, Zabihullah Ghazi andThomas Gibbons-Neff.

Two U.S. soldiers killed by an Afghan sergeant were mourned last week. When the war began in 2001, the Americans were children.DOUG MILLS/THE NEW YORK TIMES

Continued on Page A10

TOKYO — The ground ruleswere clear. A day before 328Americans were to be whiskedaway from a contaminated cruiseship in Japan, the United StatesEmbassy in Tokyo told pas-sengers that no one infected withthe coronavirus would be allowedto board charter flights to theUnited States.

But as the evacuees began filingonto two reconfigured cargoplanes early Monday for depar-tures to military bases in Califor-nia or Texas, some noticed tentedareas separated from the rest ofthe cabin.

Then reality hit: After 12 daysstuck on the cruise ship wheremore and more people were test-ing positive for the virus, theywere now sharing planes withpeople carrying the same patho-

gen they were desperate to es-cape.

“I didn’t know until we were inthe air,” said Carol Montgomery,67, a retired administrative assist-ant from San Clemente, Calif. “Isaw an area of plastic sheetingand tape.”

While the planes were aloft, theState Department and the Depart-ment of Health and Human Serv-ices said in a joint statement thatthe results for 14 passengers whohad been tested two or three daysearlier had come back positive —just as they were heading to theairport in buses.

American officials, it turnedout, had started bringing the pas-sengers home without actuallyknowing their test results. But be-cause the evacuation had alreadybegun by the time Japanese offi-cials relayed those results, offi-cials decided to let the infectedevacuees, who were not yet exhib-iting symptoms, board the planesand sit in the back, separated fromother passengers by plasticsheets about 10 feet tall.

The reversal was the latest cha-otic turn in a two-week quarantineof the ship that has become an epi-demiological nightmare.

Even as the Americans wereflying home and countries likeAustralia, Canada and South Ko-rea were preparing to evacuatetheir own citizens, the JapaneseHealth Ministry announced onMonday that 99 more cases hadbeen confirmed on the cruise ship,

Fleeing a Ship, Only to Fly Home With a VirusBy MOTOKO RICH

and EDWARD WONG

Fourteen American citizens, found to have the coronavirus, flew back to the United States separatedfrom other passengers by plastic sheets. Several infected Americans stayed in Japan for treatment.

PHILIP AND GAY COURTER/VIA REUTERS

Healthy Citizens ShareFlight to U.S. WithInfected Travelers

Continued on Page A6

HOUSTON — It hadn’t evenbeen a full day since a 12-year-oldvideo surfaced of Michael R.Bloomberg showing him linkingthe 2008 financial crisis to the endof redlining, a practice that al-lowed banks to declare low-in-come, mostly minority neighbor-hoods off-limits for loans.

But as the criticism swelled, Mr.Bloomberg was in Houston intro-ducing a new initiative for hispresidential campaign calledMike for Black America. MayorSylvester Turner of Houston,whose endorsement Mr. Bloom-berg had pursued for weeks, deliv-ered an impassioned speech, asdid the mayors of Columbia, S.C.,and Washington, both of whomare also helping Mr. Bloombergwith his African-American out-

reach.“You don’t judge people by the

mistakes they have made,” Mr.Turner declared. “You judge themby their ability to fess up.”

For the past two months, Mr.Bloomberg’s presidential cam-paign has been lining up endorse-

Rivals Take Aim at Bloomberg,Armed With His Past Remarks

By JEREMY W. PETERS

Michael R. Bloomberg’s stand-ing in the polls has been rising.

GO NAKAMURA/REUTERS

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WASHINGTON — America’sglobal campaign to prevent itsclosest allies from using Huawei,the Chinese telecom giant, in thenext generation of wireless net-works has largely failed, with for-eign leaders publicly rebuffing theUnited States argument that thefirm poses an unmanageable se-curity threat.

Britain has already called theTrump administration’s bluff, bet-ting that officials would backaway from their threat to cut offintelligence sharing with anycountry that used Huawei equip-ment in its network. Apart from anangry phone call between Presi-dent Trump and Prime MinisterBoris Johnson, Britain appears tobe paying no price for its decisionto let Huawei into limited parts ofits network, under what theBritish say will be rigorous sur-veillance.

Germany now appears ready tofollow a similar path, despite anendless stream of cajoling andthreats by Secretary of State MikePompeo, Defense Secretary MarkT. Esper and other U.S. officials ata global security conference inMunich last weekend.

In public speeches and privateconversations, Mr. Pompeo andMr. Esper continued to hammerhome the dangers of letting a Chi-nese firm into networks that con-trol critical communications, say-ing it would give the Chinese gov-ernment the ability to spy on — or,in times of conflict, turn off —those networks. The securityrisks are so severe, they warned,that the United States would nolonger be able to share intelli-gence with any country whosenetwork uses Huawei.

“If countries choose to go theHuawei route,” Mr. Esper told re-porters on Saturday, “it could welljeopardize all the informationsharing and intelligence sharingwe have been talking about, andthat could undermine the alliance,or at least our relationship withthat country.”

Yet officials sense their contin-ued drumbeat of warnings is los-ing its punch in Europe, so the ad-ministration is shifting its ap-proach. The United States is nowaiming to cripple Huawei by chok-ing off its access to the Americantechnology it needs and trying to

EUROPE RESISTINGCAMPAIGN BY U.S.TO BLOCK HUAWEI

BRITAIN WON’T COMPLY

Allies Wary of AlienatingChina Are Dubious

on Alternatives

By DAVID E. SANGERand DAVID McCABE

Continued on Page A9

As talks escalate to settle thou-sands of opioid-related lawsuitsnationwide, a harsh reality isemerging: The money the phar-maceutical industry will pay tocompensate ravaged communi-ties will most likely be far lessthan once envisioned.

Lawyers on all sides have beenstepping up efforts to reach a na-tional agreement before the startof a New York trial next month.But even plaintiff lawyers now be-lieve the payout from dozens ofopioid makers, distributors andretailers is likely to be less thanhalf of what the four Big Tobaccocompanies agreed to pay morethan 20 years ago in a landmark

settlement with states over costsassociated with millions of smok-ing-related deaths.

Whatever the final amount, itwill certainly fall well short ofwhat public health experts say isneeded to heal the long-term ef-fects of the opioid crisis.

The tobacco settlement of 1998totaled more than $206 billionover 25 years. When pressed to

name the dollar figure he wasswinging for, Joe Rice, the chiefnegotiator for thousands of citiesand counties suing the pharma-ceutical industry who was also in-strumental in wresting the tobac-co settlement, conceded in an in-terview, “People would say I wascrazy if I thought we could getover $100 billion.”

Opioid Payout Won’t Be Nearly Enough to Heal All the WoundsBy JAN HOFFMAN

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Asphalt’s life span is around 30 years.In Trempealeau County, Wis., the aver-age age of roads is 74 years. PAGE B5

BUSINESS B1-7

Crumbling Rural RoadsThe Angolan-Portuguese star is win-ning fans by putting a global spin onAfrican music. PAGE C1

ARTS C1-8

Pongo Turns Struggles Into Pop

Paul Krugman PAGE A22

EDITORIAL, OP-ED A22-23A generation of aggressive savers couldleave central bankers with less room tocut interest rates during crises. PAGE B1

A Millennial Fed Threat

A leaked government document showshow Uighurs, Kazakhs and other pre-dominantly Muslim minority groupswere selected for internment. PAGE A4

INTERNATIONAL A4-10

China’s Muslim TargetsScientists think they have identified thecranium of Pliny the Elder, who diedduring a rescue operation after MountVesuvius erupted in 79 A.D. PAGE D1

SCIENCE TIMES D1-6

Tracking an Ancient Admiral

A Virginia State Senate committeerejected a high-profile proposal to banassault-style rifles. PAGE A12

NATIONAL A12-16

Virginia Rejects Weapons Ban

Appearing for the first time since theSenate trial, he says his book containsrevelations beyond Ukraine. PAGE A15

Bolton Speaks of CensorshipSix trustees of the design museum haveresigned in protest over the removal ofthe director Caroline Baumann. PAGE C1

Tumult at Cooper Hewitt

SAN FRANCISCO — Apple onMonday became one of the firstcompanies to reveal how the coro-navirus that has gripped Chinawas affecting its business, sayingit was cutting its sales expecta-tions for this quarter, which amonth ago it had projected to berobust.

The iPhone maker, which ishighly dependent on Chinese fac-tories and Chinese consumers,said in a statement that its supplyof smartphones would be ham-pered because production wasramping up more slowly than ex-pected as China reopened its fac-tories. Apple also said that de-mand for its devices in China hadbeen hurt by the outbreak; itclosed all 42 of its stores in thecountry last month and most haveyet to reopen.

“Work is starting to resumearound the country, but we are ex-periencing a slower return to nor-mal conditions than we had antici-pated,” said Apple, one of theworld’s most valuable public com-panies.

Many global firms rely on fac-tories in China to manufacturegoods as varied as socks and lap-

Apple ExpectsSales to SufferAfter Outbreak

By DAISUKE WAKABAYASHI

Continued on Page A9

Ryan Newman was in serious conditionbut expected to survive after a majorcrash. Denny Hamlin won the race forthe second straight year. PAGE B9

SPORTSTUESDAY B8-11

Frightful Finish at Daytona 500An undocumented construction workercomplained to his wife that his boss waspushing too hard. Then he died in acollapse at the site. PAGE A18

NEW YORK A18-19

Risky Work, Without Recourse

VOL. CLXIX . . . No. 58,607 © 2020 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2020

Late EditionToday, cloudy, some rain, high 50.Tonight, rain early, clearing late, low37. Tomorrow, several hours of sun-shine, an afternoon breeze, high 44.Weather map appears on Page A24.

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