Political Quotes

“I don't want to use the word insulting, but it has no persuasive force, let's put it that way. Does this mean if a country like Iran or Cuba, for example, signs up, that we would be associating with lesser thugs? Actually, don't the proponents of the treaty want us to associate with thug nations, if this is going to mean anything? Don't we want all of those countries in the treaty with us? Somehow, under their logic, we don't want to associate with these thugs. Yet, they want to pass a treaty that, presumably, if it is going to mean anything, has these thugs in it, in which case we are associating with them. Obviously, the point is not whether we are associating with thugs. I don't think that any of us can fail to make appropriate distinctions here. The fact of the matter is, those thug nations, if this treaty is to mean anything, ought to be part of the organization and, at that time, the United States then could participate in a meaningful way. Until those thugs are a part of this treaty, we are just wasting our time and money and putting a lot of our citizens to an awful lot of unnecessary hassle. The point of this condition is to make a point, to make the point that the countries that really matter are not even going to be governed by this treaty. It is one of the reasons why this treaty, in the end, cannot be supported.”