November 22, 2015

Dr. Ben Carson had another one of his rambling foreign policy discussions on national TV today, courtesy of ABC News' This Week earlier today. He was all over the map on topics and even though his answers were rehearsed, that didn't make them sound any more plausible. A couple of things stuck out for me. One was that he equated being against 'waterboarding," which is torture, as some form of "political correctness." Does he even understand what the term "political correctness" means?

the avoidance, often considered as taken to extremes, of forms of expression or action that are perceived to exclude, marginalize, or insult groups of people who are socially disadvantaged or discriminated against.

I don't understand how the definition justifies Carson's use of political correctness when discussing torture?

STEPHANOPOULOS: And I do want to get your response to some of the things we've talked about with Donald Trump on how to respond to ISIS. Number one, he said we should bring back those enhanced interrogation techniques, which President Obama discontinued like waterboarding. Do you agree?

CARSON: I agree that there's no such thing as political correctness when you're fighting an enemy who wants to destroy you and everything that you have anything to do with. And I'm not one who is real big on telling the enemy what we're going to do and what we're not going to do.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But you would do that even though many consider waterboarding torture?

CARSON: As I said, I'm not real big on telling them what we would or would not do. I just don't think that's a -- I don't see where that accomplishes anything for us.

Torture has been outlawed, not because of political correctness but because it's a human rights violation. We even signed treaties against it called the Geneva Conventions. We know from experience that torture doesn't garner quality actionable intelligence so if he wants to torture "enemy combatants," just to inflict pain and suffering on them then he should just come out and say it. I'm sure the extreme right wing base of the GOP will love him for it.

He also took Donald Trump's Muslim database a step further by saying he'd like to surveil not only mosques, but churches, you know like Catholic churches, were radicalism is happening as we speak. That also includes terrorist havens like malls and shopping centers all over the country.

STEPHANOPOULOS: You have said we should monitor any churches or mosques where there is a lot of radicalization or things that are anti-American. How would you determine that?

CARSON: Well, I said in the larger capacity that we should monitor anything -- mosques, church, school, you know, shopping center where there is a lot of radicalization going on.

I don't think Carson understands the constitutionality of such a heavy surveillance state, but he really doesn't care.

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