2008 Republican primary debate, sponsored by Facebook, Jan. 5, 2008: on Homeland Security

Rudy Giuliani: FactCheck: Claimed Clinton cut army by 25%; actually was 16%

Actually, most of the cutting to which Giuliani refers occurred during the administration of George H.W. Bush. At the end of 1993, the Army had 572,423 active-duty soldiers--a far cry from 725,000. In fact, to get to that number, one has to go back to 1990, during the first Gulf War. Moreover, Clinton’s cuts in the military, while large, were nowhere close to 25% to 30%. Between 1993 and 2001, the Army declined 16%, and the entire military by 19%. Compare that with the far larger cuts made during the first Bush administration: Between 1989 and 1993, the Army declined 20%, and the entire military by 26%.

Fred Thompson: Pre-emptive war has got to be an option

A: Preemption didn’t just appear one day as a good idea. During the Cold War, we had one big enemy & one big weapon against us. We now have multiple enemies. We now have terrorists & terrorist groups, Al Qaida, rogue nations in different stages of developing nuclear weapons. We must be prepared for the different kind of weaponry that we’re facing. We could be attacked with a biological weapon and not even know it for a long period of time. This is a different world. So, instead of mutual assured destruction, which we lived under for a long time, it’s now a world where preemption has got to be an option under the right circumstances.

Q: So you would keep the Bush policy?

A: Things that happen on the other side of the world sometimes can affect us, such as perhaps Pakistan. We should only go in where we should & where we’re able to.

Fred Thompson: Oppose windfall profits tax on oil companies

John McCain: I support the Bush doctrine of pre-emptive war

A: I agree with the doctrine. And I’d also like to give President Bush a little credit. Right after 9/11, every expert in the world said there would be another attack on the US. There hasn’t been. Now, maybe that’s all by accident. But if there had been, I think it’s very clear where the responsibility would have been placed. We created the Department of Homeland Security, and America is safer. I’d like to give the president some credit for that. Now, I strongly disagreed with the strategy employed by Secretary Rumsfeld. And I’m the only one at the time that said we’ve got to employ a new strategy and outlined what it was, which is the Petraeus strategy. But we are succeeding now in Iraq.

Mike Huckabee: Islamic terror is about worldwide caliphate, not US attacks

THOMPSON: Who have we invaded before 9/11?

PAUL: We had an air base in Saudi Arabia. And how many governments have we propped up?

HUCKABEE: The fact is when there is a serious threa to this country, it is not a threat because we happen to be peace-loving people. It’s a threat because in the heart of the radical Islamic faith--not all Islam. This isn’t an Islamic problem. This is a jihadist problem. This is an Islamo-fascism problem. There is nothing about our attacking them that prompts this. They are prompted by the fact they believe that they must establish a worldwide caliphate that has nothing to do with us other than we live and breathe and their intention is to destroy us.

Mitt Romney: Jihadists attack to destroy all moderate governments

ROMNEY: Unfortunately, Ron, you need a thorough understanding of what radical jihad is, what the movement is, what its intent is, where it flows from. And the fact is that it’s trying to bring down not just us, but it’s trying to bring down all moderate Islamic governments, Western governments around the world, as we just saw in Pakistan.

Mitt Romney: We need at least 100,000 more troops in our military

ROMNEY: I agree with what the mayor said--we need to add to our military by at least 100,000 troops. But we’re going to have to move our strategy from simply being a response to military threat with military action, to an effort that says we’re going to use our military and nonmilitary resources. The answer is to move now to a second phase, a phase of helping Muslims become so strong they can reject the extreme.

Mitt Romney: Islamic terror has nothing to do with US policy of bases

ROMNEY: Ron, you’re reading their propaganda.

PAUL: What would you do?

ROMNEY: I’d read what they write to one another. Sayyid Qutb lays out the philosophy of radical jihadism and says, “We want to kill Anwar Sadat,” and when there’s the assassination of Anwar Sadat, it has nothing to do with us. Why did they kill Madam Bhutto? It has nothing to do with us. This has to do with a battle that is going on within the world of Islam, of radical, violent jihadists trying to bring down all moderate Islamic people and nations and replace them with a religious caliphate.

Ron Paul: Jihadists attack because we have bases in their countries

ROMNEY: Unfortunately, Ron, you need a thorough understanding of what radical jihad is, what the movement is, what its intent is, where it flows from. And the fact is that it’s trying to bring down not just us, but it’s trying to bring down all moderate Islamic governments, Western governments around the world, as we just saw in Pakistan.

Ron Paul: We’d be as furious as Muslims are, if our land was occupied

GIULIANI: There’s an Islamic, terrorism threat against us. It’s an existential threat. It has nothing to do with our foreign policy. It has to do with their ideas, their theories, the things that they have done and the way they’ve perverted their religion into a hatred of us. Our foreign policy is irrelevant--totally irrelevant.

PAUL: Try to visualize how we would react if they did that to us, if a country, say China, came that great distance across the ocean, and they say, “We want you to live like us. We want you to have our economic system. We want bases on your land. We want to protect our oil.” Even if we do that with good intentions--even if the Chinese did that with good intentions, we would all be furious.

ROMNEY: Ron, you’re reading their propaganda.

Ron Paul: Grouping terrorists together damages relations with Muslims

ROMNEY: Is it such a mystery as to why they attack America? We’re the strongest nation in the world.

GIULIANI: Ron, it’s simply not true. Islamic terrorists killed over 500 Americans before September 11, going back to the late 1960s. They have also killed people recently in Bali, in London. They have launched attacks in Germany. I could go on and on. The attack on Leon Klinghoffer.

PAUL: You paint all Islamics the same way, and this is a dangerous thing. What you’re doing is damaging our relationship by destroying our relationship with all Muslims. That’s what you’re doing.

GIULIANI: I do not accept that criticism.

Rudy Giuliani: Islamic terror is existential threat, not based on US policy

GIULIANI: Ron’s analysis is really seriously flawed. The idea that the attack took place because of American foreign policy is precisely the reason I handed back a $10 million check to a Saudi prince who gave me the money at ground zero for the twin towers fund and then put out a press release saying America should change its foreign policy. There’s an Islamic, terrorism threat against us. It’s an existential threat. It has nothing to do with our foreign policy. It has to do with their ideas, their theories, the things that they have done and the way they’ve perverted their religion into a hatred of us. Our foreign policy is irrelevant--totally irrelevant. If you read what they write, if you bother to listen to what they say, this comes out of their own perverted thinking.

Rudy Giuliani: Terrorists attacked us before 9/11, and after 9/11

ROMNEY: Is it such a mystery as to why they attack America? We’re the strongest nation in the world.

GIULIANI: Ron, it’s simply not true. Islamic terrorists killed over 500 Americans before September 11, going back to the late 1960s. They have also killed people recently in Bali, in London. They have launched attacks in Germany. I could go on and on. The attack on Leon Klinghoffer.

PAUL: You paint all Islamics the same way, and this is a dangerous thing. What you’re doing is damaging our relationship by destroying our relationship with all Muslims. That’s what you’re doing.

GIULIANI: I do not accept that criticism.