Manchester, New Hampshire - Republican Party presidential
candidates took tough stands Tuesday on Iran's nuclear programme, the
Iraq war and immigration into the United States as they duelled over
hot-button topics likely to figure in 2008 elections.
California Congressman Duncan Hunter, a defence expert running on
a homeland-security platform, set himself apart from the nine other
hopefuls by saying that the US might have to use nuclear weapons to
destroy Iran's centrifuges used to enrich uranium.
'I would authorize the use of tactical nuclear weapons if there
was no other way to preempt those particular centrifuges,' Hunter
said during the third nationally televised Republican debate of an
election season that has begun unusually early.
Most contenders rejected calls by their centre-left Democratic
Party rivals for a swift US troop withdrawal from Iraq, politely
criticizing President George W Bush's handling of the war but giving
few specifics on how they would handle the issue as president.
Former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who polls say is ahead in
the race for the centre-right Republican nomination, and top rival
John McCain, a US senator who strongly backed sending in more
American troops, agreed that failure in Iraq would threaten US
security.
Giuliani, 63, was the most forceful on whether Bush was right to
order the 2003 US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.
'Absolutely the right thing to do,' said Giuliani, whose
prominence derives heavily from his leadership of New York City after
the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. 'Iraq is part of the
overall terrorist war against the United States.'
McCain agreed that it was right to invade Iraq but conceded
problems.
'This war was very badly mismanaged for a long time... This is
long and hard and tough, but I think we can succeed,' said McCain,
69, a prisoner of war in Vietnam who sought the centre-right
presidential nomination in 2000.
The tension of the debate was broken at one stage when lightning
outside the building caused a loud buzz over the sound system,
interrupting remarks by Giuliani just as he began defending his pro-
choice stand on abortion rights against criticism by a Roman Catholic
bishop.
Debate host Wolf Blitzer of the Cable News Network (CNN) reassured
Giuliani, an Italian-American, that the disturbance was caused by a
thunderstorm near St Anselm's College, a Catholic university that
hosted the debate in the north-eastern state of New Hampshire.
'For someone who went to parochial schools all his life, this is a
very frightening thing that's happening right now,' Giuliani joked
before continuing.
'My view on abortion is that it's wrong,' he said, 'but that
ultimately government should not be enforcing that decision on a
woman.'
St Anselm's College hosted a similar debate Sunday among the eight
Democratic hopefuls. New Hampshire is the state where both US major
parties are holding their first primary elections in early 2008.
Tuesday's Republican debate seemed to have produced no major
shifts in the race, eight months before the New Hampshire primary.
There were no significant gaffes and no notable breakthroughs for any
candidate.
McCain, a co-sponsor of a compromise plan in the US Senate to
reform immigration policy, drew fire from several more conservative
Republicans on the stage.
Most controversially, the McCain proposal would open a path to
citizenship for an estimated 11 million or more immigrants illegally
living in the US, requiring them to pay a fine, learn English and
meet other conditions. The main focus is on immigrants from Latin
America, especially neighbouring Mexico, who do many menial jobs for
lower wages than US citizens.
Tom Tancredo, a Colorado Congressman campaigning on a platform of
tougher immigration rules, said the United States' survival as a
nation was at stake. Without firm action against illegal immigration,
the US could 'split apart into a lot of Balkanized pieces,' he said.
Giuliani called the McCain-backed plan 'a typical Washington mess'
built on compromises. To plug one key loophole, he said all
foreigners in the US should have tamper-proof identification and be
entered into a national database, he said.
'It should be in a database that allows you to figure out who they
are, why they're here, make sure they're not illegal immigrants
coming here for a bad purpose, and then to be able to throw out the
ones who are not in that database,' Giuliani said.
Mitt Romney, 60, a former governor of Massachusetts state who has
positioned himself to the right of Giuliani and McCain, also
criticized the immigration plan.
McCain defended the measure, which Bush has urged Congress to
approve.
'And if someone else has a better idea,' he said, 'I'd love to
have them pursue - give it to us.'
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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