Duncan Hunter - 1994

A WEAK FOREIGN POLICY IN A DANGEROUS WORLD (House of Representatives - May 24, 1994)

Mr . HUNTER . Madam Speaker, we live in a dangerous world. North Korea is acquiring nuclear weapons. The former Soviet States do have nuclear weapons. That situation is still somewhat unstable. Communist China is attempting to move into the formerly held position of the Soviet Union as the world's second superpower, claiming most of the territory in the South China Sea.

We have the Balkans continuing to explode, and we have continued instability in the Middle East.

It is a dangerous world, and against this backdrop of a very dangerous world, we have a President who is showing tremendous weakness in the area of foreign policy and national security.

President Clinton is slashing national defense. He is cashiering 1,700 young people a week out of the uniformed services. He has cut back our fighter forces to roughly 50 percent of what they were a couple of years ago. We are seeing now the first operations in maintenance slowdowns that led in the 1970's to a hollow force.

Madam Speaker, it is time to reverse our course and keep our powder dry. We have a dangerous world and a weak President. That is a bad combination.

50 Floor Speeches by Duncan Hunter