The reach of Donald Trump’s politics is growing long, indeed. The newly-pledged, Republican frontrunner’s ideas of hate and combatting the “politically correct” have even gone so far as infecting West Point. A recently employed professor at the military academy, William C. Bradford, has proposed that academics who oppose or are critical of the war on terror should be attacked as “treasonous” combatants.
According to the Guardian:
In a lengthy academic paper, the professor, William C Bradford, proposes to threaten “Islamic holy sites” as part of a war against undifferentiated Islamic radicalism. That war ought to be prosecuted vigorously, he wrote, “even if it means great destruction, innumerable enemy casualties, and civilian collateral damage”.
Other “lawful targets” for the US military in its war on terrorism, Bradford argues, include “law school facilities, scholars’ home offices and media outlets where they give interviews” – all civillian areas, but places where a “causal connection between the content disseminated and Islamist crimes incited” exists.
He goes on to say that he recognizes that what he is suggesting sounds extreme, but it is allowable under his theory.
“Shocking and extreme as this option might seem, [dissenting] scholars, and the law schools that employ them, are – at least in theory – targetable so long as attacks are proportional, distinguish noncombatants from combatants, employ nonprohibited weapons, and contribute to the defeat of Islamism,” Bradford said.
Looks like this is one West Point professor who’s setting his sights on a seat in Donald Trump’s cabinet. Well, we should say former professors. He was forced to quit his position now that all of this has come forward.