OFFICIALS LEGISLATION INTEREST GROUPS PUBLIC STATEMENTS COMMITTEES VETOES

Sanctions Related to Iran's Nuclear Program

Floor Speech

Date: Sept. 11, 2015
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Foreign Affairs

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Mr. Speaker, as the last speech indicates, it is hardly by chance that the House Republican leadership has scheduled these votes on 9/11--votes on an agreement to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon--ever.

   The justifiable fear of another terrorist attack and the justifiable outrage about the terrorist attack of 9/11 have been exploited before today. They were exploited to justify the disastrous invasion of Iraq. While few Americans today will recall that, actually, after 9/11 there was some early support in Iran against al Qaeda terrorism, few can forget the oft repeated and rather deceitful warning that promoted the rush to war in Iraq: ``We don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud.''

   Once again, the specter of this mushroom cloud is being raised with those who would interfere with an international, diplomatic success--an agreement that would avoid putting us on another path to war. The same kind of folks who urged us to rush into Baghdad are the same folks who told us back before we even had this agreement that it wouldn't work and that we ought to begin bombing in Tehran and in the surrounding area. They are the same folks who said that it would only take a few days of bombing and it would all be over. It is the same poor logic that took us into a disaster in Iraq, which cost so many families the ultimate sacrifice and the waste of over $1 trillion.

   This is not a debate about the Twin Towers. It is a debate, though, that would be a twin wrong if we follow the same approach we took the last time.

   I have supported sanctions against Iran.

   I have supported them at each opportunity, but this is not about sanctions. It is about a last-ditch effort to undermine a diplomatic victory.

   Those who reject this victory are weak on alternatives. They talk about a ``secret.'' The biggest secret is what they would do other than bomb first and ask questions later.

   The director of the Mossad, the Israeli CIA, says we are putting in place a verification system, which is second to none and has no precedent.

   Ultimately, reason will prevail this week in Congress. The President will be sustained, and families here and in Israel will be safer.

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