TRUMP REVERSES TORTURE STANCE
• Donald Trump retreated Friday from his promise if elected president he would order the military to kill family members of militants who threaten the United States.
But less than 24 hours earlier, in Thursday night’s GOP debate, Trump stuck to his position on targeting family members of militants and on an expansive use of torture against captured militants.
Asked what he would do if the military refused to carry out such orders, Trump replied: “They’re not going to refuse me. Believe me.”
The use of torture and the killing of civilians are barred by the Geneva Conventions, to which the United States is a signatory. Congress outlawed waterboarding and any enhanced interrogation techniques after the George W. Bush administration carried out such acts against suspected al- Qaida fighters.
Members of the U. S. military are bound by duty and tradition to refuse orders they know to be illegal. This includes intentionally targeting civilian non-combatants.
This week, more than 100 Republican defence and national security figures issued a statement blasting Trump’s foreign policy and calling his embrace of the expansive use of torture “inexcusable.”
Trump had made it clear as president he would not hesitate to go beyond waterboarding. “We should go for waterboarding and we should go tougher than waterboarding,” he said at Thursday’s debate.
He also had defended targeting militants’ 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. 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,” he said.
On Friday, Trump reversed course. “I will use every legal power that I have to stop these terrorist enemies,” the statement issued by his campaign said. “I do, however, understand that the United States is bound by laws and treaties and I will not order our military or other officials to violate those laws … I will not order a military officer to disobey the law. It is clear that as president I will be bound by laws just like all Americans and I will meet those responsibilities.”
Also Friday, Ben Carson announced he was officially ending his White House bid. The move was expected after he failed to win any primaries and did not show up for the candidates’ debate Thursday.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, an early contender for the Republican presidential nomination, said Friday he wrote to Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, asking his views on whether the intentional targeting of non- combatant family members of militants, including children, is legal under the laws of war. Graham, a former military lawyer, also asked Dunford what advice he would give troops if ordered to target such civilians.