Rick Santorum, a former Pennsylvania senator and prospective Republican 2012 presidential candidate, argued this week that the southern borders needed to be secured in part to protect from "jihadist training camps in South America."
Speaking at a Tea Party meeting in Myrtle Beach, S.C., on Wednesday night, Santorum suggested that a porous U.S.-Mexico border was leading to greater threats of terrorism.
Islamic Jihadists "realize they have to have some kind of foothold near us in North America. That's why there are jihadist training camps in South America," he said, according to the Myrtle Beach Sun News.
While the presence of some number of Islamic extremist groups in South America has been documented as a potential threat, Santorum, who has been known to back unfounded claims of threats posed by Islam, went on to more revealingly discuss his view of the larger role of the religion as far as national security is concerned.
"'The War on Terror,' that's just not true. Terror is a tactic used by an enemy," he said, according to the Sun News urging people to "talk about who the enemy is."
Santorum then claimed it was "a lie" to say Islam had nothing to do with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"They're fighting us because they fundamentally disagree with us. They want to eliminate us," he said. "We have two different ideas of what god is, two different ideas of what humanity is, two different ideas of what social justice is."