Tag: ISIS

Trump Claims Banning Muslims Makes Them More Likely to Fight ISIS

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Donald Trump discusses arresting women who get an abortion.

Donald Trump said that his proposed ban on Muslims entering the country may have the effect of motivating them to fight ISIS in order to attempt to return to the U.S. at some point.

Trump made the statement during an MSNBC town hall, when the GOP presidential front-runner was asked by Chris Matthews about the temporary ban he suggested in December.

Asked if Muslims would be more ill-disposed to fighting ISIS if a ban was imposed.

“I don’t know, maybe they’ll be more disposed to fight ISIS,” Trump said. “Maybe they’ll say, ‘We want to come back into America, we’ve got to solve this problem.'”

Here is the entire exchange:

 MATTHEWS: But there’s 1.6 billion Muslims in the world. And they’re all getting the message from Donald Trump, who’s leading the fight for the Republican nomination for president, saying, “Stay out of my country.”

How does that encourage them to fight ISIS?

TRUMP: Chris (inaudible).

MATTHEWS: How does that encourage them to fight the bad guys?

TRUMP: OK, let me explain (inaudible). They have a problem too. They have a big problem.

MATTHEWS: But if we say “Go away…”

TRUMP: I have been told by more (inaudible) who are saying, “What are you doing is a great thing, not a bad thing.” The two people in San Bernardino…

MATTHEWS: Are any Muslims telling you that?

TRUMP: I have actually — believe it or not, I have a lot of friends that are Muslim and they call me.

MATTHEWS: Right.

TRUMP: In most cases, they’re very rich Muslims, OK?

(LAUGHTER)

MATTHEWS: But do they get in the country?

TRUMP: But they do call me. They’ll come in.

MATTHEWS: How do you let them in?

TRUMP: They’ll come in. And you’ll have exceptions.

MATTHEWS: But you…

TRUMP: Wait, wait, wait. Look, Chris, Chris, with the San Bernardino situation…

MATTHEWS: Right.

TRUMP: … many people saw that apartment with bombs all over the apartment…

MATTHEWS: Yeah, I agree with that.

TRUMP: … bombs on table.

MATTHEWS: You see something, say something.

TRUMP: Not one person…

MATTHEWS: I know.

TRUMP: … with all the people that said — they said it’s racial profiling. That’s why they didn’t call. You know why they said that? Because some lawyer said, “You know, you saw this, you better come up with a good excuse.” They said it’s racial profiling. A lot of people saw what was going on in that apartment. Not one Muslim, OK?

MATTHEWS: I’m with you on this. Of course I’m with you. But that’s not the question.

TRUMP: OK. Why didn’t they report ’em?

MATTHEWS: Look, look, you’re saying ban…

TRUMP: In other words, why — but Chris, why don’t they report ’em?

MATTHEWS: OK. You say ban them from entering the country. They get the message. Everyone in the world — over 1.6 — in Indonesia, Pakistan, everywhere. In Albania. Anywhere there’s Muslims, you know, they know you don’t want them. So they get the message. They’re a little more ill-disposed to fight ISIS, a little bit more after that once they say, “The Americans don’t even like us,” don’t you think?

TRUMP: I don’t know, maybe they’ll be more disposed to fight ISIS. Maybe they’ll say, “We want to come back into America, we’ve got to solve this problem.”

MATTHEWS: OK.

TRUMP: I’m serious about that. Maybe they’ll be…

Reality

Trump’s flip-flop on banning all Muslims is a proposal to create a 2-class system, those who are rich enough to afford to get past his ban and the rest who would be forced into military service to fight ISIS. This is interesting to note to the Trump supporters who believe that he would help out the common man when it is very clear from remarks like these that his views favor the wealthy.

We will say this again, Trump’s call to ban Muslims from entering the United States has been widely derided as discriminatory, hateful unworkable, and illegal. Many legal experts have said it’s almost certainly unconstitutional.

I think Republican House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce, whose district includes parts of San Bernardino County, which suffered a deadly terrorist attack in December, said it best later in the day:

I think the thought we could have a religious test [for entrants] would be unconstitutional.
[But] we need to address the problem in terms of foreign fighters who might come back in the United States,” the congressman said in a “Squawk Box” interview. “We need to vet people who come in.”

Media

Links

http://abcnews.go.com/US/trump-muslims-fight-isis-banned-us/story?id=38042421

 

Trump Fails at Foreign Policy With The New York Times

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It’s a tradition for The New York Times to have a 1-on-1 interview with a presidential candidate to dig deep into their foreign policy positions so the public can come away with a better understanding. This usually happens much later in the race but this year however is not usual as the front-runner for the Republican candidacy for the President of the United States, Donald J. Trump, has little-to-none public foreign policy positions. So the Times reached out to Trump to get some info out of him and what we got was a rambling mess and some really bad ideas.

Some highlights of the conversation include:

  • Trump would use nuclear weapons in the fight against ISIS.
  • Trump had no idea who the head of China is.
  • He is willing to pull troops from Japan and South Korea.
  • He believes it is okay for Japan and South Korea to develop their own nuclear weapons.
  • He is totally cool with Saudi Arabia collapsing if they don’t join the fight with ISIS.

Reality

Stop The Donald Trump is reading the transcript of the conversation and working on an analysis, which will be coming soon.

If you don’t have an opportunity to read the transcript allow us to sum up the conversation: Trump is asked a direct question, he rambles about nothing for 200 words, then The Times reporter asks if he can please answer the question, repeat.

 

Trump got many details just plain wrong. For example:

Trump had no idea who the head of China is.

That would be President Xi Jinping

 

Some of the ideas that Trump put forward are just outright stupid and dangerous. For example:

He is willing to pull troops from Japan and South Korea.

And then what? China and North Korea become stronger which would destabilize Asia.

He believes it is okay for Japan and South Korea to develop their own nuclear weapons.

And then what? Now we have an arms race in Asia, exactly what we’ve been trying to avoid for the past 50 years.

He is totally cool with Saudi Arabia collapsing if they don’t join the fight with ISIS.

And then what? With no Saudi Arabia to balance the region, Iran becomes stronger.

Links

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/27/us/politics/donald-trump-transcript.html

Trump Proposes Killing Terrorist Families

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In an interview on Fox & Friends the Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said that he’d like to “take out” the families of terrorists.

“I would knock the hell out of ISIS… [and] when you get these terrorists, you have to take out their families. I say ISIS is our number one threat, we have a president who doesn’t know what he is doing and all he’s worried about is climate change, he thinks climate change is something that’s going to go kill us.”

Reality

All four Geneva Conventions from 1949 contain “Common Article 3,” which applies to “armed conflict not of an international character.” What does that mean? The U.S. Supreme Court, in the 2006 case Hamdan vs. Rumsfeld, ruled that “armed conflict not of an international character” means a war that is not fought against a sovereign state. (A sovereign state simply means a country with a recognized government.) Since groups like ISIS are not considered sovereign states, that means that Common Article 3 applies to the current war on terrorism.

According to Common Article 3, people who are taking no active part in the hostilities “shall in all circumstances be treated humanely… To this end, the following acts are and shall remain prohibited at any time and in any place whatsoever … violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture.”

Experts said this language would make Trump’s approach a violation of the Geneva Conventions, assuming that the family members were not taking part in terrorist activities.

Media

Links

http://time.com/4132368/donald-trump-isis-bombing/

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2015/dec/17/rand-paul/rand-pauls-right-geneva-conventions-bar-donald-tru/

Trump Wants to Knock the Shit Out of These People

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Trump holding Worcester rifle

Trump once again cursed as he described what he would do as president to Islamic State terrorists:

We’ve got to knock the shit out of these people. We’ve got to do it. We’ve got to do it.

The crowd once again began chanting: “USA! USA! USA!”

And we can do it fast, and we can do it furious. We can do it. We can do it well.

Media

http://www.c-span.org/video/?400925-1/donald-trump-campaign-rally-worcester-massachusetts&live&start=2042

Links

http://www.c-span.org/video/?400925-1/donald-trump-campaign-rally-worcester-massachusetts&live

Trump Links Refugees Fleeing War With ISIS

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Trump tweets his fear that Syrian refugees escaping war are terrorists.

Reality

Refugees undergo more rigorous screening than anyone else we allow into the United States. There are far more easier ways to enter the United States.

Refugee Workflow

 

Links

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/666615398574530560

https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2015/11/20/infographic-screening-process-refugee-entry-united-states

Trump Claims US Taking in 250,000 Refugees

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Trump again pounded the fear drum and lied about the number of refugees the United States is accepting from war-torn Syria.

Our president wants to take in 250,000 from Syria. I mean, think of it. 250,000 people. And we all have heart. And we all want people taken care of and all of that. But with the problems our country has, to take in 250,000 people — some of whom are going to have problems, big problems.

Reality

Taking in refugees escaping war is one of the single best things a humanitarian or Christian can do.

A 200,000 figure is an announcement in September by Secretary of State John Kerry that the United States was prepared to boost the number of total refugees accepted from around the world in fiscal 2016, from 70,000 to 85,000. Then, in 2017, Kerry said that 100,000 would be accepted.

That adds up to 185,000 over two years. But this would be the total number of refugees, not the number of refugees from Syria. As for Syria, Obama has only directed the United States to accept at least 10,000 Syrian refugees in the next year.

Links

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2015/11/18/repeat-after-me-obama-is-not-admitting-100000-200000-or-250000-syrian-refugees/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/09/10/president-obama-directs-administration-to-accept-at-least-10000-syrian-refugees-in-the-next-fiscal-year/

Trump Promises to Bomb the Shit Out of ISIS

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During a speech at Decker Auditorium in Fort Dodge, Iowa, Trump said he would go after ISIS-controlled oil fields and “bomb the shit out of ’em,” to loud applause.

ISIS is making a tremendous amount of money because they have certain oil camps, certain areas of oil that they took away. They have some in Syria, some in Iraq. I would bomb the shit out of ’em. I would just bomb those suckers. That’s right. I’d blow up the pipes. … I’d blow up every single inch. There would be nothing left. And you know what, you’ll get Exxon to come in there and in two months, you ever see these guys, how good they are, the great oil companies? They’ll rebuild that sucker, brand new — it’ll be beautiful.

Reality

To think that Presidents do not swear you would be [expletive deleted]-ing crazy, but they have a good sense to not do it in public.

Dumbing a complex situation like ISIS down into a simple catchphrase may play well to a riled up crowd, but we will never know how effective it will be until Trump becomes President and can take action. Except the military already analyzed his plan and found it to be [expletive deleted]. Whoops!

Media

Links

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWejiXvd-P8

Trump’s ISIS Foreign Policy Isn’t All That Great

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Chuck Todd

Donald Trump on MSNBC’s Meet the Press answered questions about his foreign policy.

Well, I want to take away their wealth. And, as you know, for years I’ve been saying, “Don’t go into Iraq.” They went into Iraq. They destabilized the Middle East. It was a big mistake. Okay, now we’re there. And you have ISIS. And I said this was going to happen. I said, “Iran will take over Iraq,” which is happening as sure as you’re sitting there. And ISIS is taking over a lot of the oil and certain areas of Iraq. And I said you take away their wealth, that you go and knock the hell out of the oil, take back the oil. We take over the oil, which we should have done in the first place.

Reality

Dumbing a complex situation like ISIS down into a simple catchphrase may play well to a riled up crowd, but we will never know how effective it will be until Trump becomes President and can take action. Except the military already analyzed his plan and found it to be just plain bad. Whoops!

Links

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/08/17/donald-trump-on-meet-the-press-annotated/

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