Written by David Starr   

Once again, Donald Trump has spoken like a madman.

The front runner of the Republican clown car of candidates spoke in Columbus, Ohio and made sure his opinion was known about waterboarding, i.e., torture. "Would I approve of waterboarding? You bet your ass I would. In a heartbeat. I would approve more than that. It works."

Trump added one more thing: "...and if it doesn't work, they deserve it anyway for what they do to us."

Cheers arose from his supporters. Not all of them sound sadistic, but a few of them do. That's because there is an enemy out there. And the enemy must be crushed at all costs; and the costs have been high. Given the amount of people the U.S. has bombed in the Middle East, it's no wonder that enemies, or "enemies," exist. Trump, however, along with other GOP candidates, ignores this. There is NO real intelligence used in looking at actual cause and effect. You're with us or you're against us. This has proven to be a very dangerous mindset, seeing only the B/W and not the shades of gray. George Bush Jr. is the prime example in recent memory.

True, there are Islamic fanatics trying to impose their warped views and have committed atrocious acts. But there are Christian fanatics in the U.S. trying to impose their's. And the latter is more dangerous because of the biggest weapons arsenal in the world that they have access to. Compare an IED with a cluster bomb. In the bottom line, both are not desirable. But imagine what a Trump presidency would be like. Would the red, nuclear button be pushed? Maybe not. But there would be a continuing of endless war. (That can be said for almost all the GOP candidates.)

Trump is touching a nerve with his rhetoric. His crude and bombastic style brings out the baser instincts of some of his supporters. Saying that some Mexicans are rapists and murderers sounds more racist than anything else; making Muslims use ID cards and putting them into a database sounds more fascistic than anything else; saying that killing whole families is permissible sounds more genocidal than anything else; building a wall along the Mexican-U.S. border sounds more isolationist and paranoid than anything else. (True, there are 11 million illegal immigrants in the U.S., but that gets back to understanding cause and effect/why that is the case.)

By saying that he approves of waterboarding, and the other disgusting "suggestions," Trump is implying that he would defy the rule of law, both domestically and in the international arena. And that, if he was president, would make him a war criminal.

David Starr writes on various issues, both national and international