Trent Lott: “There has been much written and much said about the convention, whether it is the right thing to do or not; is it…”

“There has been much written and much said about the convention, whether it is the right thing to do or not; is it verifiable? On the other side, there are those who say it would affect the overall atmosphere with regard to these chemical weapons. There is very legitimate debate about whether or not this convention should be ratified or not. It is my intention to go forward with the consideration of this Chemical Weapons Convention beginning probably on Thursday. We are scheduled to have votes on Friday. But as we near consideration of that convention, I wanted to share with my colleagues some of the correspondence that I have recently received. Late on Friday of last week, I received a letter of opposition to the convention signed by more than 50 defense and foreign policy experts, including two former Secretaries of Defense, former members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and many others. The letter made four fundamental points: The Chemical Weapons Convention is not global, it is not effective, and is not verifiable, but it will have significant costs to American security. Their letter concludes by stating that 'The national security benefits of the Chemical Weapons Convention clearly do not outweigh its considerable costs.'”