Political Quotes

“the condition we have before us right now is whether or not the United States will be a party to a meaningful treaty, that is to say a treaty that covers nations that it needs to cover. It will not do us any good if we are a party to a treaty, paying 25 percent of the costs, to inspect ourselves. Right now, the countries that have ratified this treaty are not the countries that are of concern to us. They do not have weapons. As a matter of fact, right now the countries that are parties have nothing to inspect. The United States, if it believes this treaty is ultimately going to have any positive effect, that is to say if it has significant verification features, and if it is global in the sense that most of the countries of the world that have chemical weapons are parties to it, and if it is enforceable--at that point in time the United States presumably could get something out of this treaty. In the meantime, the only thing we get out of it is the opportunity to pay a lot of money, as I say, to inspect ourselves. Because the countries that need to be inspected are not yet in it. Specifically, 74 countries have ratified the treaty and they are the countries of least concern to the United States. The three countries that have the largest amount of chemical weapons in the world--Russia and China and the United States--are not parties, nor are any of the so-called rogue countries of the world. Many of these countries have no intention of signing onto the treaty.”