Political Quotes

“Thank you very much, Mr. President. I see both the ranking member and the chairman of the committee on the floor. I wish to say a few words about both of them and the good name they give to bipartisanship. Both of them see how much of America's destiny is wrapped up in this treaty and how nuclear weapons become a bane of existence because of their size, because of their number, and because of this inexorable concern that they fall into the wrong hands somehow, some way, someday. I am one of the few Members of this Senate who is old enough to have seen the bombs go off in Nagasaki and Hiroshima. I know the devastation that a 15- and 21-kiloton bomb can do. These bombs today are five times the size plus, and they can eradicate huge areas. If you put multiple warheads on them, the destruction is inestimable. Mr. President, what is interesting to me about this debate is the fact that the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty was approved by a vote of 93 to 5, the 1991 START agreement was approved by a vote of 9 to 6, and the 2002 Moscow Treaty was approved by a vote of 95 to 0. As the chairman of the committee, the distinguished Senator from Massachusetts, has pointed out time and time again on this floor, those treaties received less deliberation than is being given to this treaty. The relationship between the United States and Russia today is better today than was the relationship when previous treaties were ratified.”