Political Quotes

“Madam Speaker, I will be voting today for H.R. 4133 because I agree with its two basic premises. The alliance between the United States and Israel, including military support, is of critical importance. And we must prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons capability. I cast this vote, however, with serious reservations about both the bill's timing and its content. There is no question that a nuclear- capable Iran poses a grave threat not only to Israel, but to the United States and other nations. We must ensure that we have every tool available at our disposal to dissuade if possible and prevent if necessary the Iranian regime from developing nuclear weapons or the capability to produce such weapons from stockpiled materials and components. Among these vital tools are a combination of diplomatic and economic mechanisms of the sort that I have frequently supported in the past-- including the Iran Threat Reduction Act, which also passed with overwhelming bipartisan support earlier in this Congress--that have often exerted effective pressures on Iran, hindering and deterring the development of nuclear capabilities. Military attacks on Iranian facilities by American or Israeli forces must be regarded as absolutely a last resort, fraught with potentially disastrous consequences, some quite predictable, some not yet imagined.…”