Texas Sen. Ted Cruz tells
Newsmax TV that he would not be violating his Christian faith if, as president, he follows up on his promise to "carpet bomb" Islamic State (ISIS) terrorists.
"Let's be clear, the Bible says, 'Thou shalt not murder,' which is different from 'Thou shalt not kill,'" Cruz told "The Hard Line" host Ed Berliner in an interviewed aired Wednesday. "And defending yourself is an obligation of any president. It is not murder."
America killed Nazis in World War II, but it wasn't murder, Cruz said.
"When you have the face of evil that has declared war … then it is the essence of duty to defend your nation, to defend the innocent," Cruz said. "When it comes to jihadists, they have declared war on us, and that's what President Obama and Hillary Clinton refuse to acknowledge."
The United States should have a leader that fights radical Islam the same way President Ronald Reagan fought the Soviet Union to end the Cold War, Cruz said.
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The intelligentsia and Democrats mocked Reagan's strategy of "We win, they lose," Cruz said, but Reagan unified all of foreign policy around the central focus of defeating Soviet communism.
"No. 1, he championed tax reform and regulatory reform, he unchained the American economy. He unchained small businesses. So the economy began booming," he said. "That economic growth enabled Reagan to rebuild the military, and by rebuilding the military, taking on Soviet communism on every front, strategically we bankrupted the Soviet Union and won the Cold War."