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Huckabee Presses For Military Buildup

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By LIBBY QUAID, The Associated Press

Published: December 23, 2007

SIOUX CITY, Iowa - Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee appealed to Iowa conservatives on two fronts Saturday, calling for a stronger military and stronger families.

The former Arkansas governor, who jumped to a lead in Iowa polls this month, wants a dramatic increase in regular forces to ease the strain on National Guard and reserve units being called to duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"We need to have a larger regular force to make sure we are capable if we do have to go into battle, and let's pray to God that we don't," Huckabee told about 120 people in Council Bluffs, Iowa.

Huckabee acknowledged the criticism leveled at him last week for his negative comments about President Bush's foreign policy, although he at least partly mischaracterized the administration's criticism.

Huckabee said detractors don't like his opinion that a larger force should have invaded Iraq. In fact, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice disagreed with a separate Huckabee complaint, that Bush has an "arrogant bunker mentality" toward foreign policy.

"Mistakes were made in how things were handled; we all understand that," Huckabee said of the Iraq war. "Now I'm getting criticism because I'm suggesting there were mistakes in the light-footprint concept."

Huckabee also underlined his lifelong opposition to abortion and gay marriage, issues that will likely drive many churchgoers to the Jan. 3 caucuses in Iowa. He spent Saturday traveling the western edge of Iowa, the most conservative part of the state, where GOP rivals Mitt Romney and former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson, campaigned last week.

"It's not because I don't like them," Huckabee said of gay people. "It's because I like even more the idea that the heart and soul, the essence of our civilization, is in the family. It's not in the government. It's not even in some institution, not even the church. Before there was the church, and before there was government, there was family."

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