BF2S Forums Presidential Election 2016

A leading Israeli counter-terrorism expert says Donald Trump's call to "take out" the families of terrorists would run afoul of international law and degrade the moral standing of the U.S.

"Any deliberate attacks aimed against civilians is a war crime, regardless if they are family members of terrorists or presidents or presidential candidates," said Boaz Ganor, a former consultant to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
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On Wednesday, Trump responded to a question on Fox News about minimizing civilian casualties in the fight against ISIS by saying the U.S. should hit the kin of enemy fighters.

"You have to take out their families, when you get these terrorists, you have to take out their families," Trump said. "When they say they don't care about their lives, you have to take out their families."

DesertFox- wrote:

Fuck off. Take Hillary, whose presidency would be likely more obstructive than the current administration, so Sanders actually gets support of the generic Democrats and we can have an honest-to-goodness candidate who is actually leftist.

KEN-JENNINGS wrote:

i don't elect presidents (or any officials) based on personality and charisma.  Clinton's platform is markedly different from Bernie's.

I want a politician that won't be corrupted by concentrated capital.  He's the only one in the race that has that potential (and the track record to prove it).  I won't vote democrat unless Bernie is on the ballot

Bernie Sanders, who's drawn attention for sticking to a heavily focused economic message in the wake of the Paris attacks and San Bernardino shootings, took a pass Tuesday on talking about terrorism.

The Democratic presidential hopeful brought his message of economic injustice to the impoverished West Baltimore neighborhood that was home to Freddie Gray, the African American man whose death in police custody sparked rioting in this city in the spring.

Following a walking tour of the Sandtown-Winchester neighborhood and a meeting with religious and community leaders, the Vermont senator met the press. Before he came out, a spokeswoman asked reporters to stick to the day's topic and not ask questions about the Islamic State.

After Sanders fielded a few questions on challenges facing the African American community, a CNN reporter asked: “Do you not want to talk about ISIS?”

“Of course I’ll talk about ISIS,” Sanders said. “But today what we’re talking about is a community in which half of the people don’t have jobs, a community in which there are hundreds of buildings that are uninhabitable, a community where kids are unable to go to schools that are decent.”

He left without discussing terrorism.

DesertFox- wrote:

"Supporting Israel" is a strange way to describe a candidate who is in favor of a two state solution. ISIS is far less of a threat on our shores than the fearmongers would like us to believe. He's talked about them in the past, but if he's in Baltimore to talk about economics, why try to derail the reason for his visit?