Nuclear Weapons Quotes - Page 10

• The administration took care of a source of instability in Iraq. Envision a world in which Saddam Hussein was rushing for a nuclear weapon to compete against Iran. My decision to remove Saddam Hussein was the correct decision in my judgment. We didn't find the weapons we thought we would find or the weapons everybody thought he had. But he was a significant source of instability.

  George W. Bush

  Decision, World, Care

  Source: www.cbsnews.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The basic problem with the Non-Proliferation Treaty is there's no teeth in it, no penalties for countries that don't comply. Worse, as you say, the very naïve structure of the NPT has actually made it helpful for countries who want to acquire nuclear weapons. Iraq, North Korea, Iran, all used the NPT to build up their nuclear programs.

  Kenneth M. Pollack

  Country, Helpful, Problem

  4 Copy quote

• The real concern is that Iran would do what Pakistan did. Pakistan wanted nuclear weapons, like Iran, purely for defensive reasons - to defend itself against India. The problem was that once Pakistan acquired the weapons, it allowed the country to be more aggressive. So they stepped up their support for the Kashmiri terrorists, and it led very quickly to the Kargil crisis in 2000, which almost sparked a nuclear war between India and Pakistan.

  Kenneth M. Pollack

  Country, Real, War

  "The Persian Puzzle: An Interview With Kenneth Pollack". Interview With Bradford Plumer, www.motherjones.com. January 24, 2005.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Once Iran gets nuclear weapons, they may believe that they are no longer vulnerable to either.

  Kenneth M. Pollack

  Believe, Vulnerable

  Source: www.motherjones.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The emergent terrorist threats and the spread of nuclear technology and materials have made it much more likely that terrorists will get their hands on a nuclear weapon and that just changes the whole calculus. I love the quote by Rev. Richard Cizik: "If you've never changed your mind about anything, then pinch yourself, you might be dead." The world has changed and we need to start talking about this.

  Valerie Plame

  Technology, Mind, World

  4 Copy quote

• The Iranians know that if they develop nuclear weapons, they will be in tremendous jeopardy from military capabilities of their neighbors and of the United States. I am not predicting what will happen in 2013, but I do think it is a crucial year. I hope we can make it clear to the Iranians that we do not object to them having peaceful use of nuclear power. But when they enrich Uranium to a 20 percent level, people think they are going for the bomb. Their uranium enrichment program is a real danger.

  Sam Nunn

  Military, Real, Thinking

  Source: www.spiegel.de

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• We need a dialogue with the Iranians, and it is going to take both carrots and sticks. We employed very tough economic sanctions, and they are having an effect. But we also have to give the Iranians an idea of what the economic and cooperative possibilities would be if they did give up their quest for a nuclear weapon.

  Sam Nunn

  Giving Up, Tough, Economic

  Source: www.spiegel.de

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I don't think that within a certain amount of time we can get rid of all nuclear weapons. But I do believe that, step by step, we could get others to join us. I call it going up the mountain. We can get to the top eventually, but we have to get to base camp first. Right now, we are in the valley. So we have a long way to go, but maybe our children or our grandchildren will see the top of the mountain.

  Sam Nunn

  Children, Believe, Thinking

  Source: www.spiegel.de

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• We know that Russia has done things that are very much against our interests. They've done things that require us to take punitive action against Russia. That does not mean we can't work with Russia where we have a common agenda. Russia is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council; we need their help in isolating North Korea and their nuclear weapons violations. So, we still need to work with Russia. But Russia's done things that are contrary to our national security interest, and the US must respond to those types of activities.

  Ben Cardin

  Mean, Done, Helping

  Source: www.politico.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Tell me a country that is doing well and has a great leader? You look at the nuclear weapons all over the place and you look at things like ISIS, and every country seems to have a battle going on. This is not leading to a good conclusion, unless the world wakes up. This is not what I was living through 50 years ago.

  Robert Downey, Sr.

  Country, Leader, Battle

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• We're doing terribly. We're leaving these unborn children trillions of dollars of debt, which is just horrific. We're leaving nuclear weapons - enough to end life as we know it - all over the planet. We're leaving a legacy of violence and killing and guns.

  Wayne Dyer

  Children, Gun, Leaving

  7 Copy quote

• The entire United States is within range of our nuclear weapons, and a nuclear button is always on my desk. This is reality, not a threat.

  Kim Jong-un

  Reality, Threat

  40 Copy quote

• The biggest threat that we face right now is not a nuclear missile coming over the skies. It's in a suitcase. This is why the issue of nuclear proliferation is so important. It is the - the biggest threat to the United States is a terrorist getting their hands on nuclear weapons.

  Barack Obama

  Important, Threat, Terrorist

  Source: www.nytimes.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Ironically, the single thing that has strengthened Iran over the last several years has been the war in Iraq. Iraq was Iran's mortal enemy. That was cleared away. And what we've seen over the last several years is Iran's influence grow. They have funded Hezbollah, they have funded Hamas, they have gone from zero centrifuges to 4,000 centrifuges to develop a nuclear weapon.

  Barack Obama

  War, Having Fun, Enemy

  Source: www.nytimes.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• What can you do to mitigate the likelihood that Iran will develop nuclear weapons? There's a very simple method: move towards establishing a nuclear-weapons-free zone, which everybody in the world wants, but the US blocks.

  Noam Chomsky

  Block, Moving, Simple

  Source: www.truth-out.org

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• Arab public opinion does not regard Iran as a hostile entity. In fact it's so supportive of Iran that a majority would think the place would be better off if Iran had nuclear weapons. The main enemies are the United States and Isreal, in the 80, 90 percent range.

  Noam Chomsky

  Thinking, Iran, Enemy

  Source: brightestyoungthings.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The Iranian issue I don't think has much to do with nuclear weapons frankly. Nobody is saying Iran should have nuclear weapons ­nor should anybody else. But the point in the Middle East, as distinct from North Korea, is that this is center of the world's energy resources. Originally the British and secondarily the French had dominated it, but after the Second World War, it's been a U.S. preserve. That's been an axiom of U.S. foreign policy, that it must control Middle East energy resources.

  Noam Chomsky

  War, Thinking, Issues

  Source: www.counterpunch.org

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• It would seem to be the case that pressure on Iran to acquire nuclear weapons is almost totally driven by their need for a deterrent capability to avoid the fate of Iraq, Libya. The use of American military force in Syria thus sends exactly the opposite message as supposedly desired to the leadership in Tehran - and to others. North Korea has been dealt with diplomatically because it has the bomb and might use it if provoked.

  Richard A. Falk

  Military, Fate, Iran

  Source: www.truth-out.org

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I think it is less the limited amount of information than the filters that information about the Middle East must pass through before being fairly addressed in the mainstream media. In more intellectual and geopolitical terms, the perceptions of the region are distorted by a combination of Orientalism and the priorities of the state of Israel, including the refusal to discuss the relevance of Israel's nuclear weapons arsenal in the context of addressing Iran on its nuclear program.

  Richard A. Falk

  Thinking, Israel, Media

  Source: www.truth-out.org

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Israel produces and stores chemical weapons. So therefore the US will prevent the Chemical Weapons Convention from being imposed on the Middle East. But it's necessary to evade this by misrepresenting the convention, and I think maybe 100 percent of the media, or close to it, go along. But that's a critical issue. Actually, Syria's chemical weapons were developed largely as a deterrent to Israeli nuclear weapons. Also, not mentioned.

  Noam Chomsky

  Thinking, Media, Issues

  Source: www.truth-out.org

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The British bombed German cities [during World War II] to keep the workers awake at night. So instead of dropping one bomb, we sent a thousand planes and, yes, we took out the factory sometimes, but we also took out the city. It reached the point where we wanted more efficient ways to destroy a city. The result was nuclear weapons.

  George Friedman

  War, Night, Cities

  Source: www.psychologytoday.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The United States was the one nullifying any attempt in the Security Council of the United Nations to sanction those fascist governments, really segregationist and racist. The same thing it is doing for Israel is what it used to do for South Africa who ended up having seven nuclear weapons. Why didn't they act against them like they did against Iraq for the so called weapons of mass destruction during Bush that never existed in the first place?

  Alejandro Castro Espin

  Government, Mass Destruction, Israel

  "The Future of Cuba". Interview with Lasonas Pipinis Velasco, www.counterpunch.org. February 27, 2015.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• When the nuclear weapons were sent to the racist South African government, where a few million white people subjugated more than 13 million black people, it was so they could use them against the Cuban forces that were defending Angola. These things have not been written down but they need to be told as part of the reality of history which should not be distorted the way the historians connected to the power elite tend to do.

  Alejandro Castro Espin

  Reality, Government, White

  "The Future of Cuba". Interview with Lasonas Pipinis Velasco, www.counterpunch.org. February 27, 2015.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• When people know we are ready to use nuclear weapons, they're going to back off if we do something aggressive. So basically, nuclear weapons are always being used.

  Noam Chomsky

  People, Nuclear, Use

  Source: www.salon.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• We also need to look at precedent before making these decisions. Instead of listening to Muammar Qaddafi's rhetoric, we should look at how he's behaved. The fact is he's been making concessions recently. He gave up his nuclear weapons. He allowed hundreds of Americans to evacuate Tripoli. Did he crack down on his people who revolted? Yes, but that's not so unusual. For me, it's always a failure of diplomacy. Our willingness to immediately turn to a military solution is disturbing.

  Michael Hastings

  Military, People, Decision

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source