Rubio: Humiliate ISIS on YouTube

Marco Rubio isn’t a patient politician.

And a sense of urgency is what the nation — the world scene at this place and time — demands, the Republican presidential candidate told an audience of about 100 people Monday morning at Greasewood Flats, a rustic Carroll events barn.

Photo by Douglas Burns

“It’s our identity that’s at stake,” Rubio said.

In an hour-long speech and question-and-answer session, Rubio, a U.S. senator from Florida, hit on traditional limited-government issues and sounded hawkish themes on national defense, at one point saying, after a detailed description of the rise of a notorious Islamic extremist terrorist group, ISIS, that the United States and its allies should upload videos to YouTube of terrorists it captures for worldwide consumption.

“I want the world to see how these ISIS leaders cry like babies when they’re captured,” Rubio said. “I want the world to see how these ISIS leaders, once captured, begin to sing like canaries if they survive.”

ISIS has claimed responsibility for this month’s attacks in Paris that killed more than 100 people with bullets and bombs.

Young fighters around the world would have second thoughts about joining ISIS, once they see how “easily humiliated they are by American power,” Rubio said.

Rubio said the United States should be aiding with attacks against ISIS leadership nodes. The bulk of the forces trained on ISIS need to be Sunni Arabs, but the United States should provide special operators to carry out the attacks, Rubio said.

The Florida senator said killing, not conversion, is the only solution to ISIS.

“These guys are not going to turn into stockbrokers or open up a chain of car washes,” Rubio said, “They’re radical killers, and either they win or we win.”

At age 44, Rubio is the youngest major-party candidate seeking the White House in 2016. (Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, 44, is younger by about two weeks but dropped out of the race last week).

The election, Rubio said, can’t be the Republicans naming the next person in line.

“We need new people,” he said. “The time has come to turn the page.”

In the last GOP presidential debate, Rubio said the United States needs more welders and fewer philosophers. He drilled home that point on Monday. Rubio said he would make federal student aid available to people as young as 15 and 16 years old so they can obtain trade and technological training while in high school. That way, at age 18, if they choose not to go to college, they can start careers as over-the-road truckers, welders or in other well-paying skilled positions, said Rubio, who added that he would be the vocational-education president.

In lieu of the current student loan system, Rubio has proposed establishing private investment groups that review a student’s potential and invest accordingly. Students would then repay the loans based on what they earned after leaving school.

On other issues, Rubio:

• Supports the continuance of the current Renewable Fuel Standard, but not its extension.
• Backs term limits for federal office.
• Calls for abolishing the federal Department of Education.
• Blamed both the Democratic and Republican establishments for what he sees are problems with debt and the United States’ role in the world. “We are on the road to decline because both parties put us on this road,” Rubio said.

Carroll Mayor Adam Schweers and State Rep. Brian Best, R-Glidden, helped organize the Rubio event. Both local Republicans have endorsed Rubio.

“I just think he gets it,” Best said in an interview. “He’s a very intelligent man. I like his stance on national security. I think that’s important. He’s a good, true conservative.”

Schweers met with Rubio in March in Ames and decided to back the Florida Republican.

“I really think that he’s a great family man,” Schweers said. “He’s got some good values as far as what he wants to see for his children and his family. I believe he is the right candidate as we move forward to tackle the important issues of today.” CV

Douglas Burns is a fourth-generation Iowa newspaperman who resides in Carroll. He and his family own and publish newspapers in Carroll, Jefferson and other neighboring communities.