February 21-2014
. . . stands tough
Rep. Eric Cantor, the Republican leader in the House of Representatives, says the mere fact of holding talks with Iran has allowed sanctions to erode and increased the danger of Iran becoming a nuclear power.
In a speech Monday to the Virginia Military Institute, Cantor, who is from Virginia and is the sole Jewish Republican in the House, described leading a congressional delegation recently to Auschwitz to mark the 69th anniversary of the Nazi death camp’s liberation.
“Hitler’s rise and conquest of Europe did not come as a surprise. We must not repeat the same mistake by reducing our preparedness, accepting the notion that we are one of many or ceding global leadership to others,” he said.
Cantor said that “evil and hateful ideologies still exist in the world,” citing as perhaps the most evident Iran’s “determined march” to produce nuclear weapons.
“I can imagine few more destabilizing moments in world history than Iran on the threshold of being a nuclear power,” he said.
Cantor called on the United States to prepare for additional sanctions to counter what he said was the erosion of Iran’s isolation through its participation in international talks aimed at keeping it from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
This is a fear common among conservatives in the United States.
“An America that leads is an America that must work to restore the badly eroded international pressure on Tehran,” he said. “We should lay the groundwork now for additional sanctions in the event Iran violates the terms of the interim agreement.”