On the recordDecember 4, 2014
it is widely anticipated that the President intends to nominate Dr. Ashton Carter to be the next Secretary of Defense, perhaps as early as tomorrow, and I welcome that nomination. Should Dr. Carter take over the helm at the Defense Department, it would coincide with an ominous development on a national security issue that he and I have dealt with together in the past, and that issue is the growing danger that Iran will soon be able to develop nuclear weapons and the inability of prolonged negotiations with Iran to prevent them from doing so. In 2008 Ash Carter and I participated in coauthoring a report by the Bipartisan Policy Center entitled ``Meeting the Challenge: U.S. Policy Toward Iranian Nuclear Development.'' In that report we acknowledged that Iran's nuclear program would pose ``the most significant strategic threat to the United States during the next administration.'' That group, which was cochaired by former Senator Chuck Robb and myself, included many with long and well-respected credentials on foreign policy matters. That report also emphasized what was at stake and what the consequences would be if Iran was allowed to achieve nuclear weapons capability. I want to quote from what we said and concluded.…
