On the recordAugust 1, 2012
I have no further requests for time. And I'd like to just raise a couple of the issues that my friends, Mr. Paul from Texas and Mr. Kucinich from Ohio, have put forth in the context of opposition to this bill. This is not the next step to war. This is the alternative to war. Iran having a nuclear weapon is unacceptable for many, many reasons: It means the end of the nonproliferation regime; It means countries all through that part of the world will seek their own nuclear weapons; It raises the specter of nuclear weapons being passed on and dirty bombs being passed on to terrorists, and there is nothing in the comments of the regime that could let one relax and think they would never be the first to use those nuclear weapons. That is unacceptable. Our alternatives are either war or finding a diplomatic resolution of their nuclear weapons program, the end of that program. They've been found, not by the White House, not by some Vulcans in foreign policy, but by the IAEA and the U.N. Security Council, over and over again, to have violated their obligations under the nonproliferation treaty to which they are a signatory. They don't ratify the additional protocols. They move ahead with enrichment plants that they don't need for a peaceful weapons program. They do not have a right to enrich. You could argue they have a right to a nuclear energy program, but not a right to enrich.…
