Former GOP Rep. Duncan Hunter was in Boise on Tuesday raising money for 1st District candidate Vaughn Ward.

Hunter, who represented a San Diego district for 18 years, had campaigned for former Rep. Bill Sali in the past. Hunter said he phoned Sali to tell him he wants Ward to face Democrat Walt Minnick in 2010.

Before the $100 per person event at the Arid Club, the former chairman of the House Armed Services Committee and 2008 presidential candidate sat down with the Idaho Statesman.

Q: You have supported Bill Sali. Why the change?

A: "I explained to Bill that I think Vaughn has a quality that is extremely important to the nation right now because we're at war. And that is he is one of the few combat veterans running for Congress."

Hunter said Sali told him Tuesday morning that he hadn't decided whether to try to reclaim a seat he held from 2007 to 2009. Sali did not return phone calls Tuesday.

Q: Iran recently disclosed it has a second uranium enrichment site, at Qom. How should the U.S. respond?

A: "It is now clear that the Iranians intend to produce nuclear weapons. Either they voluntarily dismantle these sites and stop the centrifuges or we destroy them."

Q: How?

A: "You take them out with conventional (non-nuclear bombs). ... If we're going to compare this to a shooting gallery, the larger ducks are going by right now. Once they produce enough material to build a couple of bombs, they can apply the conventional components and trigger mechanisms and weaponize it in a very small, secret, hidden place."

Q: Is bombing necessary within a matter of months?

A: "I don't know, but I would say this: Typically we've underestimated the speed and intensity of these programs. ... That's a decision for the president to make in consultation with the Joint Chiefs and with the allies."

Q: Gen. Stanley McChrystal has lobbied to add as many as 40,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan to the 68,000 already there. The president met with congressional leaders Tuesday to discuss strategy. What's your view?

A: Hunter said President Obama must do what President Bush didn't - directly ask the heads of state of our allies in Afghanistan to play a more direct role in combat.

"The Americans are carrying this fight and Europe and NATO (are) AWOL. NATO has become a social club where more effort is given to catering, cocktail parties and uniform fitting than to war fighting. ... The president of the United States needs to engage our 26 NATO allies and bring them into this fight where they commit troops to areas where there is a real contest occurring."

Q: What if that fails?

A: "If they won't do it, and if McChrystal thinks you've got to have it done in the near term, he's our leader in that theater and we should give him the tools he needs to get the job done."

Q: You've also campaigned for the late Rep. Helen Chenoweth-Hage. What brings you to Idaho so often?

A: In the early 1970s, after Army service in Vietnam, Hunter co-owned and farmed an island in the Snake River near Glenns Ferry.

Hunter's brother, James, owns Boise Hunter Homes and lives in Eagle.

"I met my wife, Lynne, in 1973 at a county-western dance at the 121 Club in Garden City."

Dan Popkey: 377-6438