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Staff photo/Jon Leu - Republican presidential hopeful Duncan Hunter talks about the war in Iraq. |
| Duncan Hunter thinks national security is the most important issue in the 2008 presidential election.
Hunter, a 27-year congressman from California, is seeking the Republican nomination for president. He has been a member of the House Armed Services Committee for 26 years and served as chairman from 2002-06.
Hunter thinks the Iraqi army's 129 battalions are enough to take over the country's security responsibilities; but the forces need more combat experience, he said in an interview with The Daily Nonpareil Tuesday. Iraqi military units need to rotate through three- to four-month combat tours to gain the battlefield and operational skills they need. A few units have done this in Baghdad, he said.
"The training ground is the battlefield," he said.
Iraqi soldiers have helped quell violence in Fallujah and elsewhere in the Al Anbar Province, Hunter said.
"That's a major success," he said.
It is unrealistic to say the United States shouldn't have disbanded Saddam Hussein's army, Hunter said.
"His army had 11,000 Sunni generals in it," he said.
That wouldn't have gone over well in a country in which Shiite Muslims make up the majority of the population, he said.
Hunter is optimistic about the survival of a democratic Iraq.
"I think the Iraqi government will hold on, and I think the army will hold on," he said.
Still, Hunter thinks the United States should have realistic expectations.
"These milestones that we're establishing as benchmarks probably will not happen," he said. "A success for us is to have an Iraq that is a friend, not an enemy, to the United States, does not sponsor terrorism and that has basic freedoms."
Expectations for peace, too, must be tempered, Hunter said.
"There will always be bombs going off in Iraq - just as there are always bombs going off in Israel," he said.
And Iran will continue to have influence in Iraq.
On another front, Hunter said there is no need for the United States to invade Pakistan.
"Pakistan has moved 100,000 troops to the border area," he said. "They understand that Al Qaeda and the Taliban are not going to be good for their future."
Hunter's son has served two tours of duty in Iraq and is currently serving in Afghanistan.
On trade, Hunter said the United States must demand fairness from its trading partners - especially China.
"China has devalued its currency by 40 percent," he said. "This has resulted in a huge trade deficit to China, which they are using to arm."
The Communist nation now produces more than 100 missiles a year, along with other military equipment, Hunter said.
"The tragedy is, they're doing that with American money," he said. "That dynamic is undercutting our products around the world. We're pushing our industry offshore."
The problem is not only an economic issue but a national security issue, Hunter said. U.S. manufacturers of key military equipment and components are dwindling.
"The Chinese are targeting key industries," he said. "It's in our interest to have a manufacturing base in this country."
A value-added tax allowed in a post-World War II trade agreement is part of the problem, he said. The United States must insist on "mirror trade" and charge the same fees as its trading partners.
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