John Kerry: “I rise to oppose the Thompson amendment. I want to talk a little bit about the reasons I oppose it, and perhaps respond…”

“I rise to oppose the Thompson amendment. I want to talk a little bit about the reasons I oppose it, and perhaps respond a little bit to some of the comments that have been made in the course of the afternoon. Having been part of these debates now for some period of time, I have begun to notice the ebb and flow on how we approach these issues of concern about foreign countries, about issues of national security and how they do and do not impact us. It is interesting because we tend to go to the extremes. That is perhaps part of the nature of the Senate. It is part of the nature of the political process. But what is clear to me, after observing this over a long period of time, is that it is not always beneficial to furthering the larger national security concerns of the country. I approached this issue originally with much the same concern as the Senator from Tennessee. I think all of us are deeply concerned about the degree to which certain countries seem to be contributing to the potential of instability in the world. Obviously, there is nothing more destabilizing or threatening than weapons of mass destruction.”