{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://web.archive.org/web/20140223160545/http://messer.house.gov/media-center/editorials/peace-through-strength", "Peace through Strength", "2013-12-10", "2013", "2013-12", "Republican", "House", "IN", "Luke Messer", "M001189", "web.archive.org", null, null, "legacy", "Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. As we continue negotiations with Iran on its nuclear weapons program, this time honored wisdom should guide us. Seventy-five years ago, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain signed the Munich Pact, handing portions of Czechoslovakia to Adolf Hitler's Germany.\u00a0 With the hindsight of history, we now know that Chamberlain\u2019s efforts to appease Hitler and find \u201cpeace for our time\u201d actually led to the last world war.\u00a0 History teaches that we cannot appease evil.\nThis Administration\u2019s foreign policy failures are well documented. Clearly, they are badly in need of a foreign policy success.\u00a0 However, the tentative agreement John Kerry and the Obama Administration made with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani does little to reverse the course of Iran\u2019s nuclear capacity, potentially making the world a much more dangerous place.\nGiven the high stakes of delay, we cannot allow insincere overtures to buy Iran more time to achieve nuclear capability.\u00a0 Any permanent agreement with Iran should require a halt to all uranium enrichment and an abandonment of Iran\u2019s nuclear ambitions.\u00a0 Importantly, as an indication of good faith, Iran should stop uranium enrichment now.\u00a0 Period.\u00a0\nA nuclear armed Iran is a game changer that would alter the world as we know it.\u00a0 That danger is closer than you might think.\u00a0 According to physicist David Albright of The Institute of Science and International Security, Iran could have \u201cenough weapon-grade uranium for a bomb in as little as one and one and a half months\u201d and a functional weapon in several months to a year depending on the size and complexity of the device.\nIn August, I met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu while on a trip to Israel. His sobering assessment of Iran\u2019s nuclear ambitions and analysis of the potential consequences of a nuclear capable Iran would strengthen anyone\u2019s resolve. In his October 1 speech to the United Nations General Assembly, the prime minister was clear that \u201cthe only diplomatic solution that would work is the one that fully dismantles Iran\u2019s nuclear weapons program and prevents it from having one in the future.\u201d\u00a0 I agree.\nOur sanctions against Iran were working.\u00a0 They damaged the Iranian economy and brought President Rouhani to the negotiating table.\u00a0 Through the tentative agreement made in Geneva, we have now eased those sanctions and given his regime more breathing room.\u00a0 I believe that move could embolden his belief that Iran is entitled to enrich uranium.\nWe may not agree on much here on Capitol Hill, but the agreement reached in Geneva has been criticized on a bipartisan basis.\u00a0 Earlier this year, 78 of my Republican and Democratic freshman colleagues in the House of Representatives signed a letter I wrote with Representative Brad Schneider.\u00a0 Together, we urged the President to broaden and strengthen the enforcement of sanctions against Iran until Tehran takes verifiable steps to reverse its nuclear activities.\nWhen we look back on this administration, the President will be judged by one simple question, did he or did he not prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon?\u00a0 The tentative agreement reached in Geneva does not go far enough to keep that from happening.\nPresident Obama must make clear to Iran that we mean what we say.\u00a0 History teaches peace through strength.\u00a0 There is no peace through appeasement.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://web.archive.org/web/20140223160545/http://messer.house.gov/media-center/editorials/peace-through-strength"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.7316588889807463, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}