Bob Menendez: “this vote that we are about to take today has deep personal significance for me and for many others. For me, as chairman…”

“this vote that we are about to take today has deep personal significance for me and for many others. For me, as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, I finally have come full circle from my vote in the House of Representatives 21 years ago when I did not support the 2002 AUMF. I have, for my 31 years in Congress, had a standard. If the cause is right and the Nation needs it, then I will vote to send my son and daughter into war, and I will vote to send anyone else's sons and daughters into war. But if the cause is not right and the Nation truly doesn't need it, not only will I not send my son and daughter into war, I won't vote to send anyone else's sons and daughters into war. And, at that time, as a Member of the House, I did my due diligence with all the evidence that was available, and I saw no clear and present danger, no imminent threat to the United States, and, above all, no evidence--underline ``evidence''--of weapons of mass destruction. So I voted no. I was in the minority at the time, and it was, in many respects, a tough vote, but it was the right vote. It is significant for some of my fellow Senators who also themselves, many, have fought in the war in Iraq, and I echo what Senator Risch, the ranking member said. When our sons and daughters answer the call, they don't say: Is this the right or wrong war? They just say: I am here to serve. And so we honor their service, both in the Iraq war and in the Gulf war before it.…”