On the night before the South Carolina presidential primaries, Donald Trump hosted a rally to encourage supporters to vote and to address his views on current-day topics along with sharing his plans for improving and strengthening the country. In his opinion, he told voters that he believed the President of the United States must be tougher in dealing with terrorists.
Trump voiced the need to protect the second amendment and the right to bear arms in light of various acts involving gun violence. He briefly touched on the shooting in California involving the Muslim couple who entered the husband’s workplace with guns blazing, killing 14 people and injuring others. The business entrepreneur shared with his audience that he believed if there were “guns pointing in the other direction,” the outcome of the scenario would have been much different.
Later during his visit, Trump admitted that he did not have the most congenial personality. However, he relayed that a community in New Hampshire complained about the existence of a heroin problem and the importing of drugs from Mexico. He claimed that Texas border patrol agents reported having no authority when immigrants crossed the border illegally. Trump expressed that in both instances, the president must take a tougher stance. He then bragged that after the recent terrorist attack in Paris, the polls rose in his favor due to his willingness to be intolerant of offenders.
He explained that when the topic of water-boarding came up in a recent debate, some of the other candidates balked at offering an opinion one way or the other. On the other hand, he boldly proclaimed that he was not against the tactic. Though considered illegal by international law, Trump declared that the practice was borderline. He felt that the act was merely minimal torture.
Not only is the act inhumane but considered counterproductive by investigative officers. The procedure involves positioning the prisoner on their back with the head tilted lower than the chest. An interrogator pours water into the suspect’s mouth and nose. The continual flood of water prevents the individual from fully exhaling or spewing and removing the water. The sinuses and trachea fill with water, the lungs may collapse and the person begins drowning as water replaces air. Water-boarding is hardly minimal torture.
In an attempt to support his “get tough” with terrorists approach, Trump recanted a story involving United States General John Joseph Pershing who fought Muslim Filipino forces during the Moro Rebellion in 1913. The story goes that Pershing’s men captured 50 of the terrorists responsible for immeasurable human carnage. The officer instructed his men to take 50 bullets and dip them into pig’s blood before loading their rifles. The idea being that Muslim’s so abhor pigs they believe coming in contact with the animal would contaminate them and prevent admittance into heaven. The soldiers followed Pershing’s instructions and shot 49 of the terrorists. The last man was told to return to his people and relay the incident. The General’s fierce act supposedly stopped terrorism in the country for the next 25 years.
However, factual accounts indicate that while Pershing and his forces successfully prevented a massive attack by terrorists one night by killing approximately 500 out of thousands of men, there was no indication that the bodies were desecrated using blood or any other portion of a pig’s anatomy. Additionally, according to Raeed Tayeh, a member of the American Muslim Association in North America, the notion is ridiculous. Muslims would not be denied entry into heaven for merely touching a pig. The Anti-Defamation League further explained that the claim is simply a stereotypical belief.