We Won’t Be Fooled Again on Iran

– We must commit that a strike against Iran by Israel will lead to an immediate repudiation of President Obama and the Democratic Party by the American people. To paraphrase JFK, the American people can not tolerate deliberate deception and offensive threats on the part of any nation or any administration, nor in this case the catastrophic geo-political and economic ramifications caused by the aggression of the outlaw state of Israel. It shall be the policy of the American people to regard any attack launched by the criminal state of Israel against Iran as a political attack by President Obama on the people of the United States, requiring a full retaliatory, political response upon this administration. –

– President’s State of the Union Address, January 29, 2002:

Iran aggressively pursues these weapons and exports terror, while an unelected few repress the Iranian people’s hope for freedom.

Iraq continues to flaunt its hostility toward America and to support terror.  The Iraqi regime has plotted to develop anthrax, and nerve gas, and nuclear weapons for over a decade.  This is a regime that has already used poison gas to murder thousands of its own citizens — leaving the bodies of mothers huddled over their dead children.  This is a regime that agreed to international inspections — then kicked out the inspectors. This is a regime that has something to hide from the civilized world.

States like these, and their terrorist allies, constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world.  By seeking weapons of mass destruction, these regimes pose a grave and growing danger.  They could provide these arms to terrorists, giving them the means to match their hatred.  They could attack our allies or attempt to blackmail the United States.  In any of these cases, the price of indifference would be catastrophic.

We will work closely with our coalition to deny terrorists and their state sponsors the materials, technology, and expertise to make and deliver weapons of mass destruction.  We will develop and deploy effective missile defenses to protect America and our allies from sudden attack.  (Applause.) And all nations should know:  America will do what is necessary to ensure our nation’s security.

We’ll be deliberate, yet time is not on our side.  I will not wait on events, while dangers gather.  I will not stand by, as peril draws closer and closer.  The United States of America will not permit the world’s most dangerous regimes to threaten us with the world’s most destructive weapons.  (Applause.)

Our war on terror is well begun, but it is only begun.  This campaign may not be finished on our watch — yet it must be and it will be waged on our watch.

We can’t stop short.  If we stop now — leaving terror camps intact and terror states unchecked — our sense of security would be false and temporary.