Posted on 05/22/2007 5:46:32 PM PDT by Ultra Sonic 007
ALEXANDRIA, VA -- "I can pledge this to you: If I should be elected president of the United States, I will never, never, never abandon Israel," emphatically announced Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., before enthused attendees of "A Night to Honor Israel" at the Rachel M. Schlesinger Concert Hall at Northern Virginia Community College, Sunday night.
Hunter, an announced presidential candidate, immediately followed an impassioned plea from Rev. Jan Willem Van Der Hoven, who in his "Greetings from Israel" address declared that an American pull-out in Iraq would be tantamount to an abandonment of Israel, a nation surrounded by enemies in the Middle East. "Let's not trade oil for Jews!" he exclaimed.
For his part, Hunter did nothing to distance himself from the inflamed rhetoric, adding some of his own: "As a member of the United States Congress, I never supported giving up one inch of the state of Israel and that will always be my position!"
Hunter has been a Republican member of the House of Representatives since 1981 from California's 52nd congressional district in northern and eastern San Diego. A Vietnam veteran, he served in the 173rd Airborne and 75th Army Rangers. His son, Duncan D. Hunter, an Iraq war veteran, is currently a candidate for his congressional seat in 2008.
The senior Hunter became chairman of the House Armed Services Committee in 2002. He formally announced his presidential candidacy in Spartanburg, South Carolina, on Jan. 25, 2007.
Hunter zeroed in on a theme of a common threat faced by both the U.S. and Israel incoming missiles tipped with engines of mass destruction, either nuclear or chemical.
"I can tell you we will see offensive ballistic missiles aimed at the United States of America that will not fall harmlessly into the Sea of Japan or in the Pacific Ocean. They will have to be taken down," Hunter warned.
Citing rogue nations "charging down the path of nuclear weapons," being aided and abetted by those nations willing to sell military hardware, Hunter advised: "That means at some point the United States and Israel are going to have to stand together and defend against the incoming ballistic missiles."
Hunter recounted the clandestine attack by Israel in 1981 on the light-water nuclear materials testing reactor in Osirak, Iraq. It was crippled by Israeli aircraft in "Operation Opera" a pre-emptive attack to prevent Saddam Hussein from using the reactor for the creation of nuclear weapons.
After the attack by the eight F-16 aircrafts, Hunter recalled, many world leaders publicly chastised the action as a terrible thing. "Then, they all walked into their offices, and I can tell you this, they closed the door and breathed a sigh of relief . . . because Israel had the courage that none of them had."
Last week, Hunter spearheaded a measure aimed at creating closer U.S. and Israeli defenses against ballistic missiles of the type that could be fired by Iran.
Part of a $504 billion defense spending bill passed last Thursday, the measure would redirect $205 million in DoD funds toward projects already underway in Israel providing $25 million more for Arrow missile co-production and integration, $45 million for a U.S.-Israeli short-range missile defense system called "David's Sling" and $135 million to buy a Theater High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, fire unit.
All three projects involve interceptors designed to shoot down ballistic missiles in the terminal phase of their flight paths.
In his Sunday night address, Hunter likened the current situation in the world with the challenged faced by America in the 1920s, when Brig. Gen. Billy Mitchell "went to visit with a Republican Administration and said we have to spend a lot of money on air power . . .'"
Today, Hunter said, we face a similar crisis in the form of terrorists with technology.
"We are going to have to meet that technology with American technology and with Israeli technology - we are going to do it, and just as Winston Churchill said never, never, never give up.'"
Agreed, he absolutely has my vote in the primary - the more I read, the more I like, on every issue. All I can say is, how on earth has this guy continued to get re-elected in Southern California for twenty years? :)
After this amnesty charade, there are very few candidates as viable as Hunter.
Does this mean that he’ll abolish the “roadmap?”
Hunter is exactly the candidate I’ve been dreaming of. He isn’t trying to tell me what I want to hear, he’s telling me what he believes. He’s leaving the choice of voting for him up to me.
That kind of honesty is extremely rare in today’s political world of triangulation and deception.
We agree.
They sure do, and they have good reason to fear him! We need a leader like Duncan. He could lead America out of the mess it's in.
That was the context of the article....if you even bothered to read it. Leaving Iraq is same as nuclear Iran scenario...by defeating Islamonazis in Iraq/Afghanistan we are DEFENDING Israel.
He better be!
Duncan Hunter is an excellent choice for President. However, money and the lack thereof, will defeat him. Hope whoever does win chooses Hunter for Sec. of Defense.
He is a righteous gentile. A truly good person.
bump
He’s not a ‘viable’ candidate due to people like you. If everyone would just get behind him that believe he has what it takes to be President and stop this nonsense talking about how he allegedly doesn’t have a chance then he would have a chance. Hunter needs to be the one making the decisions, not following another wobbler like Bush.
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