Thank you very much, Lonnie. I appreciate it.

I appreciate the opportunity to be here again with my friends here at AIPAC, although this is -- thank you. As you may know, this is a somewhat important day in my life today. We have a whole lot of primaries going on all across the nation, 10 of them. But I wanted to come off the campaign trail to come here because one of the reasons that I decided to run for president is because of the grave concern I have about the security of our country and the leadership of our country in the face of a existential threat to not just the state of Israel, but I think that's where a lot of the rhetoric is oriented to, when we talk about the revolutionary Islamic republic of Iran, but an existential threat to freedom loving people throughout the world, which is what Iran is.

I have been focused on the issue of a nuclear Iran for a long time. In my last campaign back in 2006, I would travel around my state, and I would say, "How many people have ever heard of the name Mahmoud Ahmadinejad?" And no one would know. And I would always say, "Just wait. In a year you'll not only know the name. You'll be able to pronounce it."

I was the author at that time, as Lonnie mentioned, the Iran Freedom Support Act. And I fought President Bush, Secretary Rice in making the claim that Iran, in fact, was developing a nuclear weapon at the time. They needed to have sanctions put in place, and we needed to have an effort on the part of the United States to engage the Iranian people who are being oppressed by this brutal regime in Tehran and that we needed to have the United State on the side of the Iranian people to overthrow this theocracy that runs the government of Iran. I fought to have this bill passed, and I was opposed not just by President Bush but it was filibustered on the floor by none other than Joe Biden. And it was eventually voted down, oh, and with the opposition of our president, who was then in the Senate.

Eventually, a weaker version of that bill eventually passed at the end of that year. But nothing was really done to confront Iran in their quest for a nuclear weapon or to do the important role of working with people in the streets of Iran, something that I really believe in and thought that America could play such a key role as we had in other revolutions and against dictators and despots.

Iran continued on its mission not just developing nuclear weapons but killing American troops, openly providing IEDs that have maimed and killed more Americans than any other country in the world, planning terrorist attacks, conducting terrorist attacks, supporting radical Islamist groups. All the while the United States sat on the sidelines and did nothing or slow walked what was necessary to stop this regime from spreading terror and doing something even worse, developing a nuclear weapon which would provide the ultimate shield for the promulgation of terror, potentially weapons of mass destruction through terrorist organizations, as well as we've seen the over-hyped and over-heightened rhetoric about the destruction of the state of Israel.

As I've sat and watched this play out on the world stage, I've seen a president who has been reticent. He says he has Israel's back. From everything I've seen from the conduct of this administration, he has turned his back on the people of Israel. We now have an announcement today that the administration has agreed to open talks with the Iranian government. That is in spite of UN resolutions that says they must stop the processing of their nuclear fuel in order to get those negotiations. Another appeasement, another delay, another opportunity for them to go forward while we talk.

Ladies and gentlemen, listening to the prime minister's speech last night and then listening to the president's, there is a clear and unfortunate, tragic disconnect between how the leaders of the country of Israel and the country of the United States view the exigency of this situation. Prime Minister Netanyahu was very clear. Israel is not at peace with what's going on in Iran and the process that is moving forward there. There is a concern -- obvious concern about what this administration is doing or not doing to bring this issue to a head before that final line is crossed and it is too late.

That's why I believe that we need to do more than just talk. We need to set forth a clear ultimatum to the Iranian government. We need to say to the Iranian government, the time is now. You will stop your nuclear production now. You will open up your facilities for inspectors from the United States and other countries so we can certify that those efforts are stopping and being dismantled now.

Any further delay from action now simply encourages -- simply encourages the Iranian regime to take America -- well, what they've done and taken America over the past several years, which is not seriously, not serious about stopping them from their quest for a nuclear weapon. The fact that we had the chairman of the joint chiefs suggesting that we're not sure yet that Iran is really going to pursue or has made the decision to develop a nuclear weapon just shows again the disconnect that they know we have the insincerity of our leaders in telling the truth to the American public about what is actually going on in Iran today, how radical this regime is, the hyper-rhetoric about not just the state of Israel but targeting Jews in specific.

Let's be honest with the American public about who these radical Islamists are, who Iranian -- the government of Iran and what their intention is. Their intention is not just to control the Middle East. Their intention is not just to protect themselves from being attacked. These are radical theocrats who don't just want to destroy the state of Israel. These are radical theocrats who believe it is their destiny to not just conquer and destroy those in their ways in the Middle East but far beyond that. These are the folks who have been very clear about what their intent and the idea that they won't -- if they do get a nuclear weapon, that they won't use it because, well, they're rational actors, as General Dempsey said. What leads you to believe that these folks are rational actors?

Rational actors don't call for the destruction of other states, call them cancers, preach radical theologies. Rational actors don't send 100,000 children as mine sweepers during the Iran/Iraq war. Rational actors do not develop nuclear capability, call it for nuclear power, when they have hundreds of years of oil and gas to provide for their power and their medical research. These are essentially irrational actors. We need to put that ultimatum in place, and then we need to be prepared, if that ultimatum is not met, to engage Prime Minister Netanyahu and the people of Israel in an effort to make sure that, if they do not tear down those facilities, we will tear them ourselves.

This is not bellicosity and war-mongering. This is preventing the most radical regime in the world from having a weapon that could fundamentally change the security posture not just of the Middle East. But as we've seen with planned attacks here in the United States, a nuclear Iran with a nuclear shield to project terror around the world is a nightmare for all freedom-loving people in the world.

Under a Santorum administration, we would find no gap between Israel and the United States because our interests are united in stopping the world from having a radical terrorist organization, which happens to be governing the state of Iran, from having a weapon that will destroy the opportunity for peace and prosperity for the world.

My final point I would make to you is this. We see energy prices going up, and it's obviously caused in part by the tensions in the Middle East. I would encourage everyone here to begin to work with us to make sure that the radical environmental movement in this country does not stop the production of oil and gas in this country and pipelines that need to be built so we can become energy independent and not rely on the Middle East and bad actors for the supply of oil and gas for the world.

Thank you all very much. God bless AIPAC. God bless America. Thank you.