Page 2 The Skanner December 23, 2015
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Opinion
Huge Holes in Trump’s Views on Combatting Terrorism
I
awoke to a story that Pres-
idential candidate Donald
Trump was now proposing
that the families of terror-
ists should be killed. As best
as I can tell, his rationale is
that if any terrorists know
that their families will be
killed, they are less likely to
be terrorists. The Russian
mafia has a similar view on
dealing with opponents, by
the way.
There are several things
about this ‘proposal’ that
struck me.
First, which terrorists?
Does Donald Trump mean
that the family of the late
Timothy McVeigh — the Okla-
homa City bomber — should
have been whacked by the
USA?
Does he mean the family of
James Holmes, the convicted
killer in the Aurora, Colorado
massacre?
Does he mean the family of
Dylann Roof, of the Charles-
ton, South Carolina church
killings?
Does he mean the family of
Bill
Fletcher Jr.
The Global
African
Adam Lanza, the killer in the
Newtown/Sandy Hook ele-
mentary school shootings?
For some reason, I suspect
that this is not what Trump
had in mind. But it is a rele-
vant question since most of
the post-9/11 terrorism in the
USA has been carried out by
“
This is actually more compli-
cated than it seems since there
is no international consensus
on the definition of a terrorist.
There are, for instance, Kurds
who are fighting the so-called
Islamic State (Daesh) in Syria
and Iraq who are considered
terrorists by Turkey, but have
received varying degrees of
support from the USA.
Whose families should be
exterminated? In the 1980s
the U.S. government support-
ed the Contras in their war
with the Nicaraguan govern-
ment. The Contras engaged
in military attacks on civil-
They talk as if we are engaged in a
giant video game war where there
are no real consequences
white supremacists. Taking
Trump’s argument to its log-
ical conclusion would mean
that a lot of White people
would find themselves on the
receiving end of drone at-
tacks or sniper shootings.
Second, who is a terrorist?
ians and non-military targets.
That is usually a definition of
terrorism. Should their fam-
ilies have been eliminated?
What about the families of the
US governmental authorities,
e.g., the CIA, who supported
such operations?
You see where I am going?
But let me add one point.
Has it occurred to anyone
that we may already be pay-
ing the price for the killing of
families of alleged terrorists?
Every time there is so-called
collateral damage in the kill-
ing of alleged terrorists, that
is frequently the family and/
or friends or in some cases,
simply someone walking by.
Has anyone considered that
such killings may have al-
ready triggered reactions on
the part of people who might
have otherwise never consid-
ered anything close to terror-
ism?
Trump and several of the
other Republican candidates
are very fast and loose with
their language. They talk as
if we are engaged in a giant
video game war where there
are no real consequences, just
a shoot ‘em-up free-for-all. In
the case of Donald Trump, it
might be that this is the result
of prolonged exposure to re-
ality TV shows.
Just saying…
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia Defends Racism
O
n the same day that Pres-
ident Barack Obama
gave a stirring and his-
torically grounded com-
memoration regarding the
150th anniversary of the pas-
sage of the 13th Amendment,
the one that “abolished” slav-
ery, Supreme Court Justice
Antonin Scalia chose to dis-
regard tenets of equality and
opportunity from the bench
during the hearing for Fisher
V. University of Texas. Scalia
suggested that African Amer-
ican students would benefit
more if they went to “lesser
track” schools.
His verbatim comments:
“There are those who con-
Julianne
Malveaux
NNPA
Columnist
tend that it does not benefit Af-
rican-Americans to get them
into the University of Texas,
where they do not do well —
as opposed to having them
go to a less advanced school,
a slower-track school where
they do well,” Scalia said. “One
of the briefs pointed out that
most of the Black scientists in
this country don’t come from
schools like the University of
Texas. They come from less-
er schools where they do not
feel that they’re being pushed
ahead in classes that are too
fast for them.”
“
situated students at the top of
their classes?
Abigail Fisher, who is bring-
ing this lawsuit, was deficient,
and judged as so. She was not
in the top 10 percent at her
Scalia suggested that African
American students would benefit
more if they went to “lesser track”
schools
What does Justice Scalia
mean by “lesser schools?”
Does he suggest that the Af-
rican Americans, most at the
top 10 percent of their high
school class can’t compete
with their peers, similarly
Texas high school; according
to the Top Ten Percent Plan
any graduating senior in the
top 10 percent of their grad-
uating class receives admis-
sion to the University of Tex-
as at Austin.
More than three quar-
ters of the slots at the
University of Texas-Aus-
tin are reserved for that
group of students. Fisher
was a middling student
who did not have enough
social value to be consid-
ered among the 8 percent
whose admission is a
function of the Personal
Achievement Index (PAI)
and Academic Index (AI).
These are the folks who
based on their race, so-
cioeconomic status, fam-
ily background, extra
curricular activities and
other factors stand out.
These folks are not all
African American; in
fact of the 841 that make
up the 8 percent, only
47 of them scored low-
er than Fisher and only
five of them were Afri-
can-American. They are
folks whose portfolio
deserved special consid-
eration.
Read the full commentary at
TheSkanner.com