Posted on 12/09/2007 4:38:00 AM PST by WildcatClan
SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- The first siege of Fallujah was under way in Iraq in April 2004 when a furious Marine lieutenant grabbed a satellite phone and shouted a stream of expletives at the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.
"Dad, we've already taken four K.I.A.," hollered Lt. Duncan D. Hunter. "But we're sweeping through the city, and we just got orders to stop attacking. What are you guys doing?"
"He was a grunt in Vietnam, and he has taken that with him," said Gary Jacobson, a political scientist at the University of California, San Diego. "He is very pro-soldier, not at all pro-brass, and that has served him well with his constituency."
Hunter's anti-brass appeal also extends to the campaign he's waging against the "free traders," who he says have taken over his Republican Party. He bemoans U.S. factory jobs vanishing and a trade imbalance that he fears threatens American security by financing a Chinese military buildup "with money they're getting from us."
Meanwhile, Hunter publicly chafes over lagging construction of his signature legislative achievement, an 850-mile double fence on the Mexican border that he pushed through Congress.
(Excerpt) Read more at star-telegram.com ...
Bump!
I have to admit, as I watch my own candidate’s (FT) falling poll numbers, and the rise of the Great Fraud Huckabee, I have renewed respect for all DH supporters. I used to criticize them for backing a candidate going nowhere. I withdraw that criticism.
Although I personally prefer FT to DH, if DH somehow gets traction and becomes viable I could support him 100%. He is a great conservative and a great American.
Thanks for posting....in saner GOP times Hunter would be the only real GOP presidential candidate
I can understand MORE the support for FT than I can the Great Fraud Huckabee.
The stuff I have against FT isn’t exactly obvious.
The stuff that is wrong with Great Fraud Huckabee, is very obvious.
Thanks for the nice bump.
The few issues that I disagree with Hunter about are the ones I agree with Thompson on. Together in any form Hunter and Thompson would be a runaway freight train to the white house.
This is far better than going with Huckabee or Romney, these slick Johnny Come Latelys who will only moderate in the General Election, then rule like a Democrats if they win the White House.
I can see HUNTER's support growing on FR. It is GREAT!!
Christine Todd Whitman is Administrator of Environmental Protection Agency. Christine Whitman is also a Board member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Prior to assuming her current position, Secretary Whitman served as the 50th Governor of New Jersey. As governor of New Jersey, Administrator Whitman developed a strong environmental record, providing cleaner air, water and land than when she was first elected in November 1993. Previously, she headed the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities and the Somerset County Board of Freeholders.
I like Duncan Hunter, and if the election were today, I would vote for him.
But I don’t like the tone of this article. It comes across to me as populist. While in retrospect, there are plenty of reasons to think we should have gone into Fallujah and wiped it out without batting an eye right off the bat, there were a lot of circumstances that had to be considered at the time.
This is not to say “The Brass” don’t make mistakes, because they do. War, all wars, are rife with them. I just finished reading “Brotherhood of Heroes”, the almost unimaginable story of the brutal fighting on Peleliu in WWII. The entire battle should probably not have been fought, and the way it was fought cost many lives. Due to decisions by “The Brass” (MacArthur, and to a lesser extent, Nimitz, who did not protest forcefully enough against it) 1500 Marines were killed and 6700 were wounded or missing in under 30 days of combat. All because MacArthur INSISTED that it be taken to watch his flank. Nimitz opposed it, but deferred to MacArthur. In the execution of the battle, Admiral Oldendorf botched the shore bombardment terribly.
In Bing West’s excellent book “No True Glory”, an in depth account of the political and military aspects of the battle for Fallujah, the many mistakes are all too apparent. But there WERE reasons for pulling back initially that only become invalid in retrospect. I understand completely the sentiment that the generals should be allowed to go in and fight the war completely as they see fit, but it has never (or at least only very rarely) been that way.
There has always been oversight, sometimes passive (Lincoln with Sherman) and sometimes intrusive (LBJ with Westmoreland) In this case, our troops were so close to being able to roll up the enemy and finish the job then, but due to the “Ten Thousand Mile Screwdriver” which still appears even in an age of instantaneous communication, the order was given to pull back.
Bottom line is, I know Duncan Hunter didn’t write this article, but I don’t think it is particularly helpful. It is always an easy thing to say you are against “the brass”, “the big guys”, or “the power”, and I never like hearing it. It sounds like pandering. I think if you asked Duncan Hunter straight up, he would say things that convey his understandings of the burdens and responsibilities of leadership, not “I’m against the brass”.
CA = Arnold
It has been my observation in my short military career that officers without enlisted experience often do not have a good understanding of the common soldier. I can think of one officer in particular that you don’t need to read their bio in order to figure out this person was never enlisted. I think all officers should have to start enlisted (say, two or three years) before they can move up the officer track, but that’s just me.
From the desk of
Gen. Chuck
Yeager:
November 20, 2006
To my Fellow
Americans,
Congressman Duncan Hunter is the best candidate for President of the United States of America that I know - he has integrity, tenacity, courage, and diplomacy. He is intelligent and thoughtful, does his research, and acts on it.
I have known Congressman Duncan Hunter for over 35 years. Duncan served his country in the Army and is a Vietnam vet. In Vietnam, he served in one of the most dangerous outfits - the 173rd Airborne Brigade and the 75th Army Rangers.
Duncan Hunter is the former and very effective Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee and I am proud to be the Honorary Chair of the Congressman Duncan Hunter for President Committee.
Chuck Yeager
bttt
This race is a long way from over, and Hunter is the man who should be President.
While I do not disagree completely, I think that may only be from the perspective of the USMC officer. I am a Navy vet, and grew up in a Navy family, so my practical experience is slanted.
I knew many good officers. Those I knew and respected didn’t know what it was like to be a Seaman Apprentice, but they knew how to treat people with consideration and respect regardless of their station.
In the infantry or some other specialties, I can agree that it IS important for the officers to have the experience. The USMC is different from the Army in the way they train their officers, and the relationship between the enlisted Marines and the commissioned Marines (more open and direct in the USMC by all accounts) but I think any soldier or Marine who fought in the mud with officers by their sides who shared the sacrifices would say that was enough.
Just my opinion from what I have read, though. I would defer to anyone out there with actual experience. But in my opinion, I don’t think officers do actually need to experience life as an enlisted man to be a good officer. Would it be better if they did? I agree it would, but don’t know how long would be good enough.
This article is the essense of Duncan Hunter. He’s a true leader and we are in need of a leader.
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