Mitt Romney photo

Governor Romney's Statement To The National Rally To End The Threat Now

September 24, 2007

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:
Kevin Madden (857) 288-6390

Boston, MA – Today, Governor Mitt Romney released the following letter to be read in part at today's National Rally To End The Threat Now across from the United Nations:

"Thank you for gathering today and registering your voices against Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's visit to the United Nations and New York City.

"Just over sixty years ago, in the wake of atomic destruction and the horrors of Holocaust, world leaders united to say 'never again.' Yet, this week, world leaders are giving a platform to Ahmadinejad, a man who has called for the elimination of Israel and pursues the means that would allow him to carry it out. Instead of inviting him to speak at the United Nations and Columbia University, I believe he should be indicted under the Genocide Convention.

"In prior conflicts, the signs of impending disaster were clear in hindsight. In their wake, we asked how the world's leaders could have so clearly ignored and abdicated their responsibility to humanity. Yet, the gathering storm of the Iranian regime's vision of genocide, terror and nuclear weapons is all too clear today. Far from hiding his intentions, Ahmadinejad held a conference to deny the Holocaust. His frequent incitement to destroy the state of Israel has numbed many to the point that his statements are met with silence from most world leaders.

"Yet, voices from such divergent political viewpoints as Nobel Prize Winner Elie Wiesel, former Ambassador John Bolton and law professor Alan Dershowitz have called for Ahmadinejad to be indicted for inciting genocide.

"Iran's global terrorist network that has sought to undermine UN member states ranging from Lebanon, to Iraq, and to Israel. This along with the Iranian regime's rush to defy the world and obtain nuclear weapons capabilities makes its threats ominous and unprecedented. As General David Petraeus testified, Iran is fueling the violence killing American soldiers in Iraq and is threatening to engulf the region in a wider war.

"At Israel's Herzliya Conference in January, I called for the world's leaders to speak three truths: Iran's dangerous actions must be stopped, they can be stopped and they will be stopped. If the principles of the UN's founders and the harsh lessons from past genocide have any meaning, our leaders must act now to confront the Iranian regime's terrorist, genocidal and nuclear ambitions. Failure to act now would diminish the legacy of those who fought and died in World War II and of all victims of genocide and terror.

"We are long past the time for political correctness and accommodation of Ahmadinejad's and his regime's outrageous rhetoric and support for terror. It is time to speak clearly and frankly, to strengthen alliances and build new ones, and to act with unity and decisiveness against a regime that threatens to reintroduce the world to the horrors of nuclear devastation and genocide.

"We cannot allow our leaders to abdicate their moral responsibility without our voices being heard. I ask that you remain ever vigilant in this cause as I will. Thank you again for your efforts today."

Mitt Romney, Governor Romney's Statement To The National Rally To End The Threat Now Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/296764

Simple Search of Our Archives