New Bedford Guide Your Guide to New Bedford and South Coast, MA
On Thursday, Massachusetts Congressman Bill Keating voted to limit the President’s ability to engage in hostilities with Iran unless Congress authorizes them or the use is necessary to defend against an imminent armed attack on the United States or our Armed Forces.
Below is Congressman Keating’s floor statement in support of the resolution:
“Today we debate much more than the words on parchment that define our congressional responsibility.
“Long before I knew the legal responsibility, I learned the moral responsibility inherent to what must be the most sober and deliberate decision we can humanly muster.
“As a young boy, indelibly etched in my mind, is the conversation with my grandmother the day she pulled a box out from under the bed, reverently handing me the medals and final belongings of my uncle who was killed in action, and telling me about her lost son.
“Even at a young age, I wondered what was so important to justify such a loss, and what my uncle must have thought.
“That day carried with me as I traveled to Iraq, a newly elected congressman to visit with our troops during a time of war. I remember having an individual conversation with a young Marine. I asked him his personal thoughts about the goals of the war. What he thought. Did he think it was justified.”
“He told me, ‘With all due respect sir, that is your job. My job is to serve.’
“He was right; it’s our job. That’s why we’re debating this. That’s why I’m supporting this resolution.”
