Bill Keating: “Today we debate much more than the words on parchment that define our congressional responsibility. Long before I knew…”

“Today we debate much more than the words on parchment that define our congressional responsibility. Long before I knew this 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 underneath her bed, reverently handing me the medals and final belongings of my uncle who was killed in action and telling me about her lost son. I wondered then what was so important to justify such a loss and what my uncle must have been thinking about. That day carried with me as I traveled to Iraq as a newly elected Congressman to visit our troops during a time of war. I remember having a 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 is our job. That is why we are debating this, and that is why I am supporting this resolution. Mr. McCAUL. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Wyoming (Ms. Cheney), the distinguished Republican Conference chair.”