So in the course of less than a week, Donald Trump has been on all over the place on the issue of using torture against terrorist suspects. At the debate in Detroit, he was asked what if the military refused an order to torture someone, to which he replied:
“They won’t refuse. They’re not going to refuse, believe me.”
The very next day, Trump said:
“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.”
OK, so which one is it, Mr. Flippy Floppy Trump? They won’t refuse and then they won’t have to refuse because you would not make them disobey the law. It’s one or the other; it cannot be both at the same time.
Today on “Face the Nation,” Trump was back to his pretend tough guy routine, making this declaration about ISIS:
“We have to play the game the way they’re playing the game. You’re not going to win if we’re soft and they’re, they have no rules.”
Problem is, we tried torture on suspects after 9/11, and yet we had ISIS rise in the power vacuum created when Al Qaeda was weakened. So what exactly was accomplished with lowering ourselves to the level of the barbarians and becoming just as bad as them? Trump has no answers for these questions, because such matters require serious thought, and Trump is neither a serious human being or capable of much thought at all.
While he was doing is gunslinger imitation, Trump also said “we have to beat the savages” and repeated a line he has used ad nauseam:
“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.”
Sheriff Trump finished by adding this bit of bullcrap:
“I think we’ve become very weak and ineffective. I think that’s why we’re not beating ISIS. It’s that mentality.”
So we should all adopt your mentality, Donald? One of an egomaniacal psychopath who would plunge the world into economic collapse and endless war? No thanks. We already tried that with Bush and found it to be far too unpleasant to repeat.
Featured Image Via Flickr available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial license
