Donald Trump on waterboarding: ‘If it doesn’t work, they deserve it anyway.’

[K1052]

"Would I approve waterboarding? You bet your ass I would — in a heartbeat," Trump said to loud cheers during a rally at a convention center here Monday night that attracted thousands. "And I would approve more than that. Don't kid yourself, folks. It works, okay? It works. Only a stupid person would say it doesn't work."

Trump said such techniques are needed to confront terrorists who "chop off our young people's heads" and "build these iron cages, and they'll put 20 people in them and they drop them in the ocean for 15 minutes and pull them up 15 minutes later."

"It works," Trump said over and over again. "Believe me, it works. And you know what? If it doesn't work, they deserve it anyway, for what they're doing. It works."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2015/11/23/donald-trump-on-waterboarding-if-it-doesnt-work-they-deserve-it-anyway/?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_trump-media-140pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory

Bolding mine.

Torturing people is ok, it works, we should do more of it, go further doing it, and if it doesn't work...they deserved it anyway. For a candidate under a party that's had major portions of it decry the sitting president as a tyrant/dictator it's literally unbelievable that Trump is proposing exactly the things a dictator/tyrant would do and receives adulation for it from those same people.

 

[JSt0rm]

/approval rating goes up among conservatives.

 

[ivwshane]

It's only amazing if you believed for one second any of their faux outrage about Obama.

 

[Annisman*]

Terrorists are in their own class of subhuman filth, I'm not surprised he's saying those things.

 

[Jhhnn]

Terrorists are in their own class of subhuman filth, I'm not surprised he's saying those things.

I'm not surprised either because Trump is just another kind of subhuman filth.

Constitution? Who cares? Cuz... Terrarists!

 

[LegendKiller]

I'm not surprised either because Trump is just another kind of subhuman filth.

Constitution? Who cares? Cuz... Terrarists!

Foreign soil?

Total war is the only war. You have to absolutely demolish morale and the desire to fight in order to win. If you aren't willing to go that far, then don't make war and let shit get taken from you. Others don't play by this silly one-sided morality we hinder ourselves with.

 

[Jeff7]

Foreign soil?

Total war is the only war. You have to absolutely demolish morale and the desire to fight in order to win. If you aren't willing to go that far, then don't make war and let shit get taken from you. Others don't play by this silly one-sided morality we hinder ourselves with.

And that's where things can get really ugly. I can't say I relish the idea of becoming as bad as what we're supposed to be standing against.

 

[CitizenKain]

Foreign soil?

Total war is the only war. You have to absolutely demolish morale and the desire to fight in order to win. If you aren't willing to go that far, then don't make war and let shit get taken from you. Others don't play by this silly one-sided morality we hinder ourselves with.

Better sign up then.

 

[Moonbeam]

Nobody is human who can't resist sinking to the lowest level of behavior. When one is willing to sink to the level of the most brutal, it matters not who wins. If Trump can't rise above this gutter, I can't support him.

 

[Sheik Yerbouti]

And that's where things can get really ugly. I can't say I relish the idea of becoming as bad as what we're supposed to be standing against.

agreed. we, as a nation, are collectively better than this, or we should definitely aspire to be.

 

[JSt0rm]

Better sign up then.

naw. The poors fight our wars.

 

[Vaux]

I think about Harry S. Truman and Japan, and how that would play out these days.

Of course, Truman would probably never have become president, because he would have been vilified because he said something negative on facebook or threw out some protester or some lame shit like that.

 

[JSt0rm]

this is a different issue. We are dealing with people who think when we attack them that god will come and kill us all. They literally don't care if they all die because they are all in "heaven"

They poke us to see if they can get us to come attack them on their turf because they need that to make this all happen. So I say we carpet bomb them with pornography and then give them air conditioning and 2.2 kids.

 

[MomentsofSanity]

It's only amazing if you believed for one second any of their faux outrage about Obama.

Yup.

All you need to do is look at the way they slobber all over Putin's knob to see that they are full of shit. They praise him endlessly. So many of the right wing sites today are lining up to swallow whatever Putin spews at them without question about this incident and dismissing anything that contradicts him. As they do Trump.

 

[fskimospy]

I think about Harry S. Truman and Japan, and how that would play out these days.

Of course, Truman would probably never have become president, because he would have been vilified because he said something negative on facebook or threw out some protester or some lame shit like that.

Harry Truman and Roosevelt also signed the US up for a war in which somewhere close to half a million Americans died. These tough guy policies and noble endeavors come with very real and very large human costs.

I always find it amusing that Americans embrace a hyper-individualistic look at life (no draft, low taxes, low regulations, etc) while simultaneously whining about how our country isn't as able to accomplish great national feats the same way we once did.

This is not to make a judgment call on what is better, but there is a real tension there and people seem to want it both ways.

 

[Subyman]

Lol what an idiot. So even if it doesn't work at all, let's just go ahead and do it anyway because they deserve it. Wow. So now we are sadists.

 

[WelshBloke]

Foreign soil?

Total war is the only war. You have to absolutely demolish morale and the desire to fight in order to win. If you aren't willing to go that far, then don't make war and let shit get taken from you. Others don't play by this silly one-sided morality we hinder ourselves with.

Dangerous thinking.

When your government and intelligence agencies get used to doing it abroad to foreigners you can bet that it won't be long until they start doing it at home.

 

[Newell Steamer]

Waterboarding someone who doesn't "deserve" it? It's OK, they are terrorists.

Drone striking an American who is fighting with the enemy and killing American soldiers? Wur hes ri-aights?!? Wur hes tri-al!?! Dat Mooslim communast is killin 'Muricans!!!

 

[GarfieldtheCat]

/approval rating goes up among conservatives.

Basically this unfortunately.

 

[Jaskalas]

Fascists protect the homeland by turning it into North Korea.

 

[LegendKiller]

And that's where things can get really ugly. I can't say I relish the idea of becoming as bad as what we're supposed to be standing against.

Yeah because we all became nazis...

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Yeah because we all became nazis...

Your "one sided morality" isn't a weakness, it's our strength.

 

[highland145]

And that's where things can get really ugly. I can't say I relish the idea of becoming as bad as what we're supposed to be standing against.

Agree but if you're blowing up peeps in America....tough shit.

I would much rather not having any conflict but some groups demand it. That includes the fanatic religious right. Eat dirt.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Agree but if you're blowing up peeps in America....tough shit.

I would much rather not having any conflict but some groups demand it. That includes the fanatic religious right. Eat dirt.

There must be a difference between how we treat combatants and prisoners. We must have a code of conduct for our own protection, honor and, self preservation.

 

[highland145]

There must be a difference between how we treat combatants and prisoners. We must have a code of conduct for our own protection, honor and, self preservation.

So how we do that if Fred knows the details of a bombing that will kill ours but smores aren't convincing him to give it up?


No, I don't have the answer but I do know pacifism will not work.