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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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

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