1. The U.S. military is the smallest force the country has had since World War II and is deployed around the world in a tremendous number of countries, many of them actively in conflict. What should be done? Call forces home? Re-instate the draft? Withdraw forces from less vital areas to more dangerous ones? Or what?

The draft is a bad idea. Our volunteer forces are much more highly motivated and trained than any draft army could be.

I fully support President Bush’s plan to drastically reduce the number of troops in Europe. We should have done this a long time ago. Our present military structure was created for World War II. There needs to be a major overhaul. A greater percentage of our troops should be specifically trained to ferret out and destroy terrorists and deployed to those areas where they are known to have extensive activity.

By withdrawing the tens of thousands of troops now stationed in Europe, we would be in a better position to handle the situation in Iraq as well as other hotspots around the world.

2. Hawai'i is already getting a good deal of what watchdog groups call "pork" and a very healthy share of what are called normal federal expenditures. Still, are there federal programs or funds Maui might get a better share of for our troubled harbors?

There are federal programs and funds available to help Maui improve our harbors, but getting those federal funds for those and other projects in Hawaii has been a real struggle for our congressional delegation because there’s not a single Republican amongst them.

The best way to get more federal funds for our troubled harbors and other projects in Maui County is to have a Congressional representative who is a member of the Majority Party. The U.S. House is and will be controlled by the Republican Party for the foreseeable future. So it’s absolutely essential to have in Hawaii’s congressional delegation a member of the Majority Party who will have genuine influence and power.

How effective is Case actually able to be? Case attempts to claim credit for “pork” that Hawaii’s congressional team brings home, but the only reliable measure of his effectiveness in Congress is the number of bills he has managed to persuade Congress to pass. In the past two years, Case introduced 18 bills and 17 failed to pass into law. The one Case bill that was passed by Congress renamed a Post Office. As a member of the Minority Party with very little seniority, Case has no real power or influence in Congress.

Senators Inouye and Akaka have been successful in the U.S. Senate in bringing home “pork” to Hawaii, but so much more could be achieved if we had a Congressman representing Maui who had some power and influence in the U.S. House. Ed Case is a member of the minority Party and a relative newcomer, so it’s a real struggle for him to get anything. Of course every congressman gets something, that’s the way Congress works, but a Republican Congressman would be able to be much more successful.