Trump View of Torture (and Outcome)
(He never broke and never revealed info)
GOP's Favorite All-time Hero
(his view on torture)
Donald J. Trump is moving so
fast and changing so quickly on this topic that’s it hard to keep up … so, here we
are again with another update on his stance and views about torture.
But, first I present Trump in this
short clip from “Face the Nation.” More details follow the clip.
This an extremely important topic – torture of war detainees – for any
candidate for President to tackle the way Trump has in the past, then he
flip-flopped, and now, as seen this clip, he once again reverses course back to
his original position. Watch it if you didn’t catch it on the live broadcast.
It is about 11 minutes long.
Background: Trump said late
last year on Fox to Sean Hannity and just recently reinforced his views that
he would order and allow killing suspected terrorist family members and also have
our Armed forces use torture like waterboarding and in fact that waterboarding
was not torture in his view, etc.
Now this latest from him – his
first backpedaling (my emphasis):
“I will use every legal
power that I have to stop these terrorist enemies. I do, however,
understand that the United States is bound by laws and treaties and I will not order our military or other
officials to violate those laws and will seek their advice on such matters.
I will not order a military
officer to disobey the law. It is clear that as president I will
be bound by laws just like all Americans and I will meet those responsibilities.”
As seen in the “Face the
Nation” clip, he once again reverses course by saying he if is elected
president, he would “strengthen laws to allow for the use of torture.” As noted in the interview, Trump for the third
time states his view on torture. Here are his own words from that show in part
on this subject that I want to emphasize:
“We have an enemy in the
Middle East that's chopping off heads and drowning people in massive steel
cages. We have an enemy that doesn't play by the laws. You could say laws, and
they're laughing. They're laughing at us right now. I would like to strengthen
the laws so that we can better compete. You know, it's very tough to beat
enemies that don't have any, that don't have any restrictions, all right? We
have these massive restrictions. Now, I will always abide by the law, but I
would like to have the law expanded. I happen to think that when you're
fighting an enemy that chops off heads, I happen to think that we should use
something that's stronger than we have right now. Right now, basically,
waterboarding is essentially not allowed, as I understand it. ... I would
certainly like it to be, at a minimum, at a minimum to allow that.”
[Trump discounted the
argument that if the U.S. military used waterboarding, captured American
soldiers and hostages could be subjected to worse treatment].
Trump continued: “They're
doing that anyway. They're killing our soldiers when they capture 'em. I mean,
they're doing that anyway. Now, if that were the case - in other words, we
won't do it and you don't do it, but we're not playing by those rules. What,
did somebody tell ISIS, “Look, we're going to treat your guys well; will you
please do us a favor and treat our guys well?” They don't do that. We're not
playing by - we are playing by rules but they have no rules. It's very hard to
win when that's the case.”
Host Dickerson asked if rules
are what “separates us from the savages,”
Trump said he didn't think
so, adding “We have to beat the savages.” Dickerson then asked if that would
require us throwing all the rules out.
Then Trump showed his true
colors: “You have to play the game the way they're playing the game. You're not
going to win if we're soft and they are not; they have no rules. Now, I want to
stay within the laws, I want to do all of that, but I think we have to increase
the laws.”
So, he would get laws in
place that puts us on par with those we are fighting to “compete” like in a new
business deal selling sneakers, or deal for another high-rise building, or
getting permission to build a new casino in Nevada or off-shore?
All I can say is this insane
talk from an insane man who wants to be President and do insane things.
That’s all I say at this time
– more later, I am sure.
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