Dick Lugar: “let me respond directly. I do oppose the conditions. The purpose of my amendment is to eliminate the conditions. The…”

“let me respond directly. I do oppose the conditions. The purpose of my amendment is to eliminate the conditions. The reason I want to eliminate the conditions, and the Senator from Arizona has simply illustrated that in his recitation of them--for example, No. 5, complying with all relevant arms control agreements. That is a work of art every year for people to fathom whether the Russians have complied with every one of those agreements. The question is, What if we decide they have not? Is this, then, the reason we stop destroying Russian warheads, missiles, submarines? Just stop cold because we say the Russians, in our judgment--and there is usually a debate among those in the Pentagon about this--have not got it quite right? Even more, No. 6, observing internationally recognized human rights, including the protection of minorities, I am not certain that almost any Senate or administration official has ever come to a conclusion that the Russians have been observing all internationally recognized human rights for 14 years. Yet someone is still arguing we ought to leave that on the statute books as a reason the bureaucrats in our country ponder about the human rights conditions in Russia for as many weeks and so forth until the President says: We have had enough, I waive it, let's get on.…”