Ted Cruz still doesn’t understand carpet bombing.

When tonight’s Republican debate switched to foreign policy, Cruz was asked if his claim that he would “carpet bomb” ISIS was tough talk or a legitimate policy. 

Cruz responded by saying, “It is not tough talk. It is a different fundamental military strategy than what we’ve seen from Barack Obama.” 

There’s a good chance that tough talk is exactly what this is. Cruz’s “carpet bombing” schtick has all of the hallmarks of cynical campaign rhetoric. But if Cruz’s policy as president will be to carpet bomb ISIS, there will be a lot of problems. 

Here’s the Geneva Convention’s entry on carpet bombing: 

But carpet bombing, in the case of ISIS, which has strongholds in major cities in Iraq and Syria, would also result in an enormous number of civilian casualties. Cruz can talk all he wants about glowing sand, but he’s refusing to engage with the consequences of carpet bombing for a reason: there would be tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of civilian casualties. Also, we didn’t carpet bomb Iraqi forces during the Gulf War.