Political Quotes

“Just to respond briefly here on the subject of missile defense, I know we are working with some en bloc amendments. We're comfortable with those amendments. There is some disagreement on missile defense, and I think at least a considerable vulnerability that many people on our side are very concerned with was the decision not to build a ground base system in Poland and the radar in the Czech Republic, but instead, to suggest that the Aegis class cruisers could cruise around in the ocean and take care of the mission to stop ballistic missiles, particularly a longer range ballistic missile possibly equipped with a nuclear warhead coming out of Iran. The fact of the matter is that the Aegis class missiles do not have the velocity necessary to stop a longer-range ballistic missile. And the only way we had to do that was, quite simply, the ground-based system, which is a 20-ton missile; the Aegis class missiles are more two ton. So there is a factor-of-10 difference in the weight of the missile. Obviously, the much larger missile can develop the velocity it needs to go after a very high-flying, fast-moving ballistic missile that could come from Iran as early as in the next few years. And so there is a serious concern that, in terms of missile defense, we do not really have protection over Western Europe and our troops that are stationed in Western Europe.”