Would Huckabee Fight to Defend America?

Paul Mirengoff at Powerline writes about his concerns that Mike Huckabee may be "too moralistic" to defend America:

My main objection to Huckabee -- the reason why he's my fifth choice out of five -- is that I lack confidence in his ability to fight terrorism. It's not just that he lacks experience in this realm, though that's certainly the case. The real problem is that he's too moralistic (which is not the same thing as moral). My first clue came when he said during an early debate that we need to remain in Iraq because "we broke it." Not because we need to defeat al Qaeda; not because we need to limit Iranian influence or avoid a devastating defeat at the hands of terrorists; but because we injured this formerly peaceful state. Huckabee's exaltation of moralism (in this case dubious) over policy calculation was difficult to miss.

Now we learn (but are surprised) that Huckabee opposes waterboarding and would close the Guantanamo Bay detention center. Huckabee reached this conclusion after meeting with a group of retired generals (the usual suspects, I assume) who are lobbying candidates to oppose Bush administration interrogation and detention policies.

I suspect that Huckabee required little lobbying. Waterboarding and long-term detention aren't very "Christian"; they merely keep terrorists out of action and, in special circumstances enable us to find out where we're going to be attacked next and/or where we can find those who are planning the next attacks. But if Huckabee actually did reach his position based on the views of a handful of generals, and without consulting the people actually charged with protecting this country from terrorists, then he's even less qualified to be president than I suspect.

I've had some of the same concerns. The last time we had a Baptist Sunday School teacher in the White House American foreign policy consisted of appeasement. We "loved our enemies" so much we allowed a bunch of Iranian students to capture our embassy and hold our staff hostage for 444 days. President Carter was only able to muster a half-hearted response to the Iranian crisis by authorizing an ill-fated airborne assault that met a tragic end in the deserts of Iran.

It took the threat of a strong president like Ronald Reagan to end the crisis. Perhaps he was not so willing to "love his enemies" as Carter, and maybe Huckabee, are.