GOP Lawmaker Open to Nuking Iran


Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) says he hopes the United States doesn’t go to war with Iran, but if it happens, he wants to see a nuclear attack.

On Wednesday, Hunter, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, told C-SPAN:

I don’t think it’s inevitable but I think if you have to hit Iran, you don’t put boots on the ground, you do it with tactical nuclear devices and you set them back a decade or two or three. I think that’s the way to do it with a massive aerial bombardment campaign.

He did not discuss the consequences of any possible radioactive fall-out.

You can watch the entire CSPAN interview here (if you’re into that sort of thing).

Hunter isn’t the only member of his party—or family—to talk about nuking Iran as a real possibility. When his father, former Representative Duncan Hunter, campaigned for president in 2007–with Ann Coulter’s endorsement–he joined future-failed-candidates Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney and former Virginia governor Jim Gilmore to note that the US should be willing to use tactical nuclear weapons against Iranian nuclear facilities.

Hunter the Younger’s suggestion, though, is moderate when compared to the recent proposal proffered by GOP mega-donor Sheldon Adelson, who called for nuking random spots in the Iranian desert to scare Tehran into abandoning its nuclear program.

(via Defense News)

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