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Solly Mack

(90,740 posts)
Sat May 27, 2017, 01:19 AM May 2017

Trump said he would take out the families of ISIS fighters.Did an airstrike in Syria do just that?

Back when he was still a candidate and not president of the United States, Donald Trump had a suggestion for winning the battle against the Islamic State: “Take out their families.”

“The other thing with the terrorists is you have to take out their families, when you get these terrorists, you have to take out their families,” Trump said during an appearance on Fox News' “Fox and Friends” in December 2015. “They care about their lives, don't kid yourself. When they say they don't care about their lives, you have to take out their families.”


The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an organization based in Britain that tracks the Syrian war, said that two rounds of coalition airstrikes had hit the town of al-Mayadin in Deir al-Zour province Thursday and Friday. According to their sources, the organization said, one of the strikes had hit a building housing the families of Islamic State fighters.

In total, at least 106 people died in the strikes, the Observatory said, including 42 children of Islamic State fighters. The article announcing the deaths dubbed it “the largest massacre against the [the Islamic State's] families in Syria.”
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Trump said he would take out the families of ISIS fighters.Did an airstrike in Syria do just that? (Original Post) Solly Mack May 2017 OP
That statement has always been my biggest issue with not only Trump, but also his supporters. better May 2017 #1
Bush proved some Americans think torture is acceptable. Solly Mack May 2017 #2
And that's what has me really worried that we're not going to come out of this okay. better May 2017 #3
I have the same worry most of the time. Solly Mack May 2017 #4

better

(884 posts)
1. That statement has always been my biggest issue with not only Trump, but also his supporters.
Sat May 27, 2017, 03:41 AM
May 2017

Because not only did he advocate war crimes, when pressed about what he would do if American service members refused such an unlawful order, he said (at the very beginning of a Republican Primary Debate, no less) "They won't refuse ME!" and then went on to expound upon how they would follow any order he gave because he is a strong leader.

And I have a problem with his supporters on account of these two statements because he quite literally could not possibly have told them that he would be a dictator any more clearly without uttering the phrase "I will be a dictator".

And they voted for him anyway.

Solly Mack

(90,740 posts)
2. Bush proved some Americans think torture is acceptable.
Sat May 27, 2017, 03:54 AM
May 2017

In their minds, they don't hear tyrant or dictator when Trump makes those kinds of statements - they hear USA! USA!.

I'm also think they feel if torture is so wrong, then why didn't Bush/Cheney get into trouble for it.

I agree about his supporters. Their support for Trump is the acceptance of an eroding democracy - which they seem perfectly happy with.



better

(884 posts)
3. And that's what has me really worried that we're not going to come out of this okay.
Sat May 27, 2017, 04:06 AM
May 2017

We could see the removal of every single Republican currently serving in any capacity in government, and we'd still be in deep shit. Because very nearly half the electorate failed the "don't vote for a guy you should expect to be a dictator" test.

Solly Mack

(90,740 posts)
4. I have the same worry most of the time.
Sat May 27, 2017, 04:52 AM
May 2017

Last edited Sat May 27, 2017, 05:51 AM - Edit history (1)

Opinion viewed as fact. Fact being redefined as facts and alternative facts, with expectations of both being accepted as valid.

Lies - obvious lies,at that - held as truth.

The dismissal of science.

And some people find this a good thing.

People have free speech but that speech and that right does not mean they are right/correct/factual. Doesn't matter how loud you are wrong - when you're wrong, you're wrong.

It all seems impossible at times. Other times I hope people are trying to change their own small corner of the world, because the right took years cultivating the grassroots and attacking from the ground up, to shape what many Americans think today.

Simply telling them they believe lies won' t change anything. We have to get in there, at the local level. We have to do what the right did - shape from the ground up. In the interim, we need to vote in Democrats - and we really need Trump and his entire administration gone, yesterday. Each day Trump and the GOP are in control, is another day of damage to our democracy and to the people.

Someone called Trump a low information voter who got elected, but it's far worse than that. There have always been low information voters - the GOP/Republicans/Conservatives are not simply low information - they embrace myths and lies and have built an entire political party around those myths and lies. They have built a movement that seeks chaos and destruction. Trump fits right with that because he's delusional himself.

It's not hyperbole to say they are a danger to America.

What I like about the do not normalize Trump thinking is people did normalize Bush and Cheney, and I so fear it happening it again with Trump. And Bush/Cheney were normalized the very moment the first person called torture a policy difference. Honestly, they were normalized the very second we were told to get over the 2000 selection.

I worry that Trump will be allowed to fire people or for them to resign and republicans push the idea that the problems have been resolved. That instead of actual consequences coming from the investigations, that we get an after action like review which says we have to do better next time.

And even if Trump resigns, there is Mike Pence, the theocrat, just waiting like a trap-door spider. A theocrat cannot govern a democracy. No theocrat can. Wouldn't matter who it was - if you think your religion should be the basis for government then you're a theocrat and a threat to democracy.

Pence isn't the solution. Neither Ryan nor Hatch - nor the rest of the line. It's ugly...all ugly.

There is no easy way out of this.


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