Posted on 01/05/2011 12:10:25 PM PST by pissant
Folks, please welcome back former Congressman Duncan L. Hunter to Free Republic. It has been three years since he last joined us for a live interview. Back then, he was in the midst of vying for the GOP nomination for the presidency. The GOP instead turned to a moderate in 2008, and as easily predicted, the Marxist is now in the Oval Office .
Though he is not contemplating another run right now, at just 62 years of age, and being of a restless nature when it comes to promoting conservatism, he is not sitting quietly in retirement either. Aside from his efforts to get new, conservative blood into to the 2010 Congress, Hunter has lately been spending time taking some wounded Marines out hunting, raising money for their cause, and offering advice to the folks back in Washington on how to duplicate the successes of the Iraq War in Afghanistan.
He has also written an excellent new book on the Iraq War that both explains how America was victorious, and that places the spotlight on the warriors who did the heavy lifting. The book is seen here below, and todays interview will focus to some degree on the book.
But Mr. Hunter is ready and willing to stay for an hour or so and answer your follow up questions. (The initial Q&A was conducted yesterday, 1/4/11, and is posted below as the thread body).
Without further adieu, the interview begins .
AJM: Hello Congressman. Happy New Years.
DH: Well Happy New Year to you and your family.
AJM: Thanks. Well, you ready to go live on FreeRepublic?
DH: Sure. How many folks see the site?
AJM: Im not sure, but I do know its the largest conservative forum in the country and one of the most popular conservative websites overall, as well. Not sure of the numbers, but I seem to recall that it is in the top 10 of websites. Drudge is number 1, I think. But Drudge is mainly an aggregator of news, that points you off to other websites. FR not only allows folks to post the headlines from around the world, but its main function is to allow folks to argue about them. Its a rough and tumble place. As you know, Jim Robinson is the proprietor. Hes an old Vet, Navy I think, who started it up during the middle Clinton years as a place for conservatives to bitch and moan and to become active. Its since grown to the largest conservative forum on the web.
DH: Thats great.
AJM: And the hot topic of the day (1/4) is that Sarah Palin, on her Twitter website, reposted someone elses opinion - without commenting on it she just reposted it on her own site, that basically has been construed to be in favor of the Dont Ask Dont Tell repeal.
DH: Really?
AJM: Yeah, its one of the hot issues of the day.
DH: What a turkey. But the question is: are youre saying this was a mistake in putting that up, or are you saying it was purposeful?
AJM: If its a mistake, Im sure well get some clarification soon.
DH: This is kind of like people who put things into their speech they dont want to directly say Im for the Dont Ask Dont Tell repeal so they put in heres what George Washington said about it, Right? Then they quote somebody as a deflective way of asserting their own position.
AJM: What its called in modern internet parlance is re-tweeting. (laughs).
DH: Could it have been put up by mistake?
AJM: Well, someone has to physically go grab that and post it into your own account. The quote that she put up was from a friend, a gal named Tammy Bruce. Tammy is a talk show host and while shes mostly conservative, shes also an out of the closet lesbian who has always been against DADT.
DH: Yeah. On the Dont Ask Dont Tell debate, the strongest statements I saw came from McCain. McCain said that it would fundamentally damage the military for a long time, or words to that effect. That was one of the few strong statements made about it in the Senate. All these other guys talked about how it was the wrong time, which acquiesces to the challenge. Its like ceding the moral ground to the other side, which is a HUGE mistake in any debate. It especially shows that you really dont believe in your cause.
Dont Ask Dont Tell has nothing to do with timing. It has everything to do with values.
AJM: Exactly. Last year, when Palin was on Chris Wallaces show on Fox, Fox News Sunday, he asked her about that, because there had been a little bit of bubbling up of the issue back then. The essence of her quote was no, not right now, we have other more important things to take care of now.
DH: Its the old timing argument. The timing argument basically cedes three quarters of the battlefield to the other side. Its implicitly agreed that youre going to do it. The question then just becomes the date.
AJM: Exactly. Maybe that date has arrived, based on the reposting of Tammy Bruces position. She may get enough blowback that shell run away from it again, well see.
DH: My question is this. We all know these websites are run by staff guys, right? So the question really is, is that Sarah Palins position, or did she have some activist staff person who thought that that would be a nice one to put up?
AJM: If she comes out and says thats the case, then all is well. But her answer last year was still a timing one. Especially if she runs, shell be forced to address the issue.
DH: Thats right.
AJM: Let me get a question in on your book. What lessons from your book on Iraq would you like see applied to the current hot war in Afghanistan?
DH: On a practical level, the book describes the victories, the winning strategies from a couple of our brilliant tacticians in the US Marine Corps and the US Army, strategies that were exercised in Iraq successfully. And one of the best leaders in the Marine Corps is Colonel JD Alford. He tamed what is known as the wild west of Anbar Province. That is the large area bordering Syria where massive smuggling of terrorists and weaponry took place during 2004, 2005 and 2006.
So JD Alford is a guy, what you would call an old hand in the Marine Corps. And a lot of the book is dedicated to old hands; that is Army and Marine Corps personnel who did 2, 3, 4 or more tours in Afghanistan or Iraq. In undertaking those multiple tours, they learned a lot of things about counterinsurgencies, especially. And JD Alford commanded the 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines in Afghanistan before he came to Iraq. He learned the art of splitting the population away from the insurgency, which is the key to a successful counterinsurgency campaign.
He brought that capability to Iraq. Ill give you just a couple of points that JD Alford made that are well laid out in my book, that I think troop leaders in Afghanistan would be well advised to heed. One was that he had a strategy of putting together a local fighting force. Part of a counterinsurgency is building a local fighting force that can act as a counterbalance to the insurgents. JD Alford had a motto which he called lead from behind. And that means when he was putting together a local government and a force strong enough to hold off the insurgents a local police force, helping to put together the units for a local militia he would pull back into the background and let local leaders rise to positions of prominence. He called that leading from behind. And in western Anbar Province, he would sit in the back of these meetings with the tribes, which had often been fighting each other, who would get together and decide that theyd fight the insurgents and Al Qaeda. And the only requirement that JD Alford had made, was that all the tribes be present before the meetings began. But he always sat behind the mayor, or behind the particular militia commander, or the brigade commander form the 1st Iraqi Division, and he let them rise to the fore and assert themselves.
And I think that is a problem that Americans have in Afghanistan and had in Iraq. That is, Americans like to lead. Every American infantry commander is assertive, hes got leadership qualities; thats why hes in the position he is in. And they all have a natural desire to take over and command the operation. But what Alford realized, as well as some of the other counterinsurgency strategists, was that you have to leave a native force behind capable of holding off the terrorists by themselves after the Americans leave. So the book describes JD Alfords leading from behind. He was able to stand up a native force that could hold off the insurgents long after the Marines were gone. That is what we have to do in these remote villages in Afghanistan.
So there are a lot of lessons there from guys like JD Alford, Lt. Col Bill Jurney, who tamed Ramadi, and a number of great Army leaders who did the same thing in the Diyala River Valley, up north of Baghdad. So there are certainly lessons for the folks who are going to lead troops in Afghanistan in this book about Iraq.
AJM: Thats excellent. Now you just have got to get everyone to read it.
DH: There it is.
AJM: You mentioned earlier the lame duck session and the START treaty which was passed. Unfortunately, in the Senate, about half the GOP senators went along for the ride. What is your take on Obamas new START?
DH: I think the new START is a reflection of political expediency on the part of the Obama Administration, which from my perspective, is simply punching the ticket on having some kind of an arms control deal halfway through the administration that theyll be able to point to in the next election period.
The fatal defect of the START draw-downs is this. There are of couple of countries which werent included, the most important of which is communist China, which has been left totally uninhibited with respect to its production of nuclear weapons.
China is acquiring a defense industrial base which will dwarf that of the old Soviet Union. And they are now producing high end nuclear weapons. They have a few of them right now targeted on American cities. But they have the capacity to build lots of them, very quickly. And one example of their ability to produce quickly is the fact that their production program right now for submarines is out-producing American submarines by more than 3 to 1. They have the same capability with respect to missiles. They are producing about 100 medium and short range missiles per year, but they are also fielding this new road-mobile nuclear tipped missile which will have a big reach, able to reach the United States. And it has a large degree of survivability based on its mobility.
So as the US moves into further draw-downs on its nuclear systems, the real threat on the horizon, that is the nuclear program of communist China is totally unrestricted. So this is a movement in exactly the wrong direction from my perspective.
You also have, obviously, North Korea acquiring a modest nuclear capability and at some point they will marry that capability with their ongoing missile program.
AJM: They continue to export them too.
DH: Yeah. And youll have Iran developing some kind of a nuclear capability in the not too distant future. And Iran also has a delivery program, a missile program, which will result ultimately in having a deliverable nuclear package which will reach a number of American allies, if not the United States itself.
So while North Korea, Iran, and most importantly, China, remain totally unrestricted by this treaty, we are continuing to unilaterally draw down, with Russia, Americas nuclear stockpiles. You know, one of the arguments made by liberals in the old days - in the 1980s when we were trying to modernize our nuclear weapons, the strategic TRIAD one argument from the liberals was, We already have enough weapons to kill every Russian soldier 10 times over. And our answer back was that we didnt want to have to kill any of them! And the way you kept form having to do that is by maintaining an overwhelming counterstrike capability. So the guys that threw the first rock, in this case the Soviet Union, could count on being obliterated by the return volley. As a result of having an overwhelming counterstrike capability, the United States never had to kill any of them with nuclear weapons. And that is the point: To deter would be adversaries from throwing that first rock.
The idea of whittling our systems down to the point where one of the new players in the nuclear game may feel that they can surge production and come close to the United States arsenal in terms of destructive capability, thats not a scenario that will lead to a stable world for the next 10 to 20 to 30 years.
The United States needs to keep an overwhelming ability to deter an enemy strike on America or our allies. And to this date, because we dont have the defensive capabilities that can handle a fairly substantial strike, our deterrence is manifested in our nuclear tipped systems atop our TRAID our bombers, our ICBMs, and our submarines.
So one of the main defects of the Obama package is that it left out the real player over the next 10 to 30 years, and that is communist China.
AJM: And one more defect was what some of the conservatives, and I think you were one of them, were saying that we are at least tacitly giving up our missile defenses in exchange for this agreement with Russia. Obama came out and said no, no, no, we arent doing that. Immediately thereafter, Medvedev and Putin both said that if America continues with their defensive systems, we have the right to withdraw from this treaty. So somethings not right here.
DH: Yeah. I think you are right in the sense that Russia thinks they extracted a de facto concession on missile defense from the Obama Administration. The first concession was our agreement not to put the systems in eastern Europe that could handle strikes from Iran on the European community. Obama agreed not to do that. His first statement was, we are still looking at that. And that was, for practical purposes, the opening of the door, or the first step backwards on those systems. And a few months later, Gates confirmed they would not be going in.
So its interesting. Reagan could back down the USSR on missile defenses when he used the word Nyet, when Gorbachev tried to include the closure of the missile defense program in the United States as a precondition for any Soviet/US reductions. Reagan closed the door on the Soviets demanding concessions with respect to defensive system. Obama has foolishly re-opened the door and is in the process of conceding in a de facto fashion an aggressive missile defense system that is based on the premise that we have the right to stop incoming ballistic missiles which are targeted on our cities, our troops and our allies.
Yes, thanks Jim. And thanks again for getting Congressman Hunter to visit us again. Wouldn’t blame him if it is his last.
“Thank for the great support in the campaign...hopefully, the compelling challenges of the new security environment, the transfer of our industrial base to China, and the liberal attacks on Americas military ethic will draw out a new leader”
Of every politician I have studied you are truly the most astute, including the China threats. The Tea Party has given us more conservatives, and I hope they also help us get a great new leader.
Please don’t be a stranger, and kindly visit us more often.
BTW, I sure hope that chick Bachmann runs. This old “misogynist” will support her to the hilt.
Thanks for setting up this hread, pissant. Loved reading it!
BOOKMARKED!
Thanks for the ping. Wish I could have been there.
B4DH
It was my honor and privilege.
Thanks for checking in, fellers.
What am I gonna do with you?
;*)
Thank you for your service, and for visiting. You are the sort of principled conservative we need in Washington.
I know this is late, but I have two areas of concern.
(1) I’m disturbed by the harsh tone of much of our political rhetoric. I don’t agree with President Obama’s policies, but I don’t hate Obama the man. Do you agree that we need to tone down the venom, not just for the advancement of the conservative cause, but for the good of the nation at large?
(2) I am a retired federal (postal) employee. I am aware that adjustments and cuts in benefits may be needed for the good of the nation. What I don’t understand is the broad brush demonizing of all civilian government employees. Civil servants are just like everyone else, there are good and bad among them, just as there are in any occupation. Is it necessary to use them as a scapegoat for all of our economic problems?
Thank you for answering and thank you for your leadership and focus on on important issues that others are ignoring or avoiding.
Funny. Point out where I “advocated” anything.
You seem a bit prickly on this issue.
Damn, IADH. Thanks for arranging the thread and giving FR the opportunity to engage true conservative Congressman Duncan Hunter in this format. Reading through the thread, were you upset with some of the posts? Would you do it again? Would Congressman Hunter do it again?
It’s water off a duck to me. Though it did seem a tad inappropriate to bring inter-freeper squabbles into Hunter’s lap, as if he would insert himself into that.
He wasn’t phased. He got a good laugh out of it. he’ll be back.
I would have asked him re: his post #81 on supporting Huckabee after dropping out in '08, "a lot of us fear a re-do of this awful 'remaining field' scenario in '12. If our 'remaining' choices in '12 are Huckabee, Romney or Palin, who would you support?"
Thank you so much, Congressman, for all that you have done for our country.
And you should also be 'prickly' when a freeper openly advocates taking away a woman's right to vote.
Do you or do you not agree with Pissant?
I’m saying we wouldn’t have the big intrusive nanny state we have today without the 19th amendment (I was trying to see if you’d argue against that premise),
but, no, I don’t advocate taking away women’s right to vote.
I would, however, advocate restricting the right to vote to taxpayers.
And would you say the same thing about letting blacks vote?
I’m not answering any more of YOUR questions
until you answer mine.
Not playing your [leftist inspired] game to try to make me out to be a racist or some sort of “ist”.
That’s simply a “shut up” game that refuses to discuss the issue.
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