Donald Trump’s bluster and delusions of grandeur have given him strong support among Republicans, but one combat-veteran-turned-Illinois-Representative thinks he puts soldiers at risk.
“What Donald Trump, as wanting to be president of the United States is advocating, is a war crime that would force every soldier that did, i.e. killed the relatives of terrorists, tortured regardless of whether it not it works, the things that he’s advocating would force all of these people in jail,” Rep. Adam Kinzinger said recently, according to Buzzfeed.
Trump previously claimed that “torture works” and said it’s useful because “we have to beat the savages.”
He’s also advocated killing the families of suspected terrorists, something that Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul noted would violate the Geneva Convention.
Trump was challenged in March as to whether the military would obey his commands to commit war crimes. “They’re not going to refuse me. Believe me,” he said.
“For the leading Republican presidential candidate to advocate war crimes, which he does openly, just advocates war crimes, doesn’t matter, makes me sick really,” Kinzinger said. “Especially as somebody that’s defended the country. It’s just terrible.”
Trump’s flippant attitude toward war crimes, and putting soldiers at risk, is rampant throughout his campaign. His disregard of the rule of law, and the rule-bound proceedings of American governance, has been part of his appeal for many Americans who want a leader to improve the country.
Kinzinger isn’t the only solider, current or former, to criticize Trump’s attitude toward the military.
“Ultimately, these reckless words from a potential commander in chief demonstrate contempt for the rule of law and the protection it provides to all of us — military and civilian — at home and abroad,” Brian Golden, an attorney and colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve, wrote for the Boston Herald.
Some Trump supporters might enjoy his heavy-handed and brutal rhetoric. For those whose lives are at risk and who hold the responsibility for national security, they’re less charitable toward Trump’s illiberal attitudes.
