GOP State Rep. Sparks Backlash With Comments About Nuking ISIS

Arkansas state Sen. Jason Rapert (R) said in a Facebook post that the United States should use a "strategically placed nuclear weapon" on the Islamic State terror group.
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

A Republican state lawmaker caught a lot of flak on Sunday after he called for the United States to use a “strategically placed nuclear weapon” on the Islamic State terror group.

Arkansas state Sen. Jason Rapert (R) said in a Facebook post that it was “time to annihilate the strongholds” of the terror group, also known as ISIS, and that the quickest way to “turn things around” would be to employ a “strategically placed nuclear weapon.”

Rapert also posted about using nuclear weapons against the Islamic State earlier Sunday on his personal Facebook page, the Arkansas News pointed out.

“I imagine a nicely placed intercontinental nuclear weapon would shut them up for awhile,” he wrote. “I cannot understand why our president won’t stand up – wait, I forgot that he doesn’t acknowledge the Islamic terrorists.”

Rapert’s post on the “Jason Rapert for Arkansas Senate” page was met with immediate backlash. The lawmaker responded to several of his detractors in the comments.

“It seems some of you haven’t read anything about the use of ‘tactical nuclear weapons’ and only remember Hiroshima and Nagasaki,” he wrote in one response. “Please do some research and you will find that we have battlefield capable small nuclear weapons that would be perfect for the areas where ISIS has run everyone else out and use as their strongholds.”

In another response, Rapert slammed his critics as “leftist liberals” who “hurl insults and slurs because I actually support force strong enough to stop these barbarians.” He echoed that sentiment on Twitter:

Latest Livewire

Notable Replies

  1. Moron! An intercontinental nuclear weapon would set off early warning systems in Russia and China, they would have less than 5 minutes to decide weather they are being attacked, and then launch their own missiles. Game over.

    Once a weapon is detonated, those inside the fire zone will not survive the ensuing firestorm, even if they are in a deep basement or underground shelter. Since the firestorm requires only tens of minutes to develop and create air temperatures well above the boiling point of water, along with hurricane force winds which drive the flames horizontally at ground level, there is virtually no time to escape. Strategic nuclear weapons create firestorms over total areas of hundreds or thousands square kilometers or miles.
    However, in a large nuclear war, deadly climate change would cause average surface temperatures on Earth to become so cold that it would become impossible to grow food crops for many years. Even those who escaped the initial fire, blast and radioactivity would eventually starve to death.

  2. No military service or background relating to the use of nuclear weapons, but he plays the fiddle and travels to Africa, forcing his noxious Christian BS on poor and uneducated Africans!

    “Rapert and his wife have two daughters. He plays the fiddle, which he learned to play by ear when he was ten years old.
    Rapert is the founder and president of Holy Ghost Ministries, and he makes missionary visits to Ghana on a yearly basis.”

  3. The first, most stupid knee jerk reaction is always the use of overwhelming force but it simply does not work the same way they show in the movies. It would leave an even bigger mess to clean up. Why that lesson is so hard to learn for some who knows, but people keep wanting to repeat the same mistakes, over and over again

  4. Orwell was talking about a different group’s naiveté in a different time, but the phrase is still often appropriate: “a kind of playing with fire by people who don’t even know that fire is hot.”

  5. Apparently, Sen. Rapert doesn’t understand the concept of war crimes. I’m sure he thinks Jesus would have nuked Rome if he’d had an ICBM. In short, he is the kind of Christianist who gives religion a bad name.

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

60 more replies

Participants

Avatar for doremus_jessup Avatar for dbhuff Avatar for richardinjax Avatar for littlegirlblue Avatar for meri Avatar for jloomis3 Avatar for pickwick Avatar for Patriott Avatar for sundancer Avatar for thx1138 Avatar for bradbennett Avatar for frankly_my_dear Avatar for bonvivant Avatar for korvu Avatar for progressiveoldman Avatar for twowolves Avatar for khaaannn Avatar for dnl Avatar for darrtown Avatar for buzz Avatar for emilianoelmexicano Avatar for jinnj Avatar for jinmichigan Avatar for jviscont1

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: