Neil Abercrombie: “Is it not interesting, is it not instructive that the French think that they can move ahead with this testing and at the…”

“Is it not interesting, is it not instructive that the French think that they can move ahead with this testing and at the same time condemn the activities or the presumed activities with respect to testing or the utilization of atomic or hydrogen weapons by Iran or Iraq or Pakistan or the People's Republic of China? Is it not clear that by France, ostensibly one of our allies, despite the fact that it has never cooperated with us in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, as a member of the Committee on National Security, I can say that one of our great difficulties with respect to European security is never being able to know where France will be. Will they be behind us? Will they be beside us? If they are behind us, what do they have in mind for us? What do they have in mind for Europe? We find ourselves in the position of attempting to establish a standard with respect to testing, asking other countries to follow our lead in ending the testing of atomic and hydrogen weapons as an act of common humanity on behalf of all the nations on the planet. And when France moves ahead with this kind of testing, how do we have the moral authority then to be able to say to Iran, to Iraq, to India, to Pakistan, to China, where do we get the moral authority then to be able to say, no, you should cease this kind of activity?”