Dick Durbin: “when President Obama came to office, he looked out at the threats across America, and there were four hard- target…”

“when President Obama came to office, he looked out at the threats across America, and there were four hard- target threats: Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran. The situation in Iran was particularly worrisome because there was a recurrent belief that Iran was developing nuclear weapons. I have heard critics ask: Well, what difference would it make? How foolish would it be for Iran to launch a nuclear weapon against anyone? Every nuclear weapon that is launched has a return address, and that country will pay dearly for a reckless decision such as that. But the fear the President had and we shared was that if Iran developed a nuclear weapon in the Middle East, it would trigger an arms race, and many other countries in that volatile region of the world would then seek to develop their own nuclear weapons and the potential conflagration was incredible. There was also a concern that one of the first targets of Iran would be our close ally and friend, the nation of Israel. It is easy to reach that conclusion when you read and hear the rhetoric of the rightwing in Iran, which will not even recognize Israel's right to exist. President Obama set out to do something about it. It was clear from our experience in Iraq and Afghanistan that sending in American troops was something that had to be thought about long and hard.…”