Charles Rangel: “in over 32 years I have never seen an issue that has been more important to me and probably to many of you who have…”

“in over 32 years I have never seen an issue that has been more important to me and probably to many of you who have served here than to decide the question of putting our men and women in the Armed Forces in harm's way. It just would seem to me that there is no question that if anyone in the House or the other body thought that our Nation was in eminent danger, that we would have no doubts about taking a preemptive strike and destroying that force before they attempted to harm us. The President of the United States has said to us that time is not on our side. Well, it may not be, but there are a lot of questions I would like to believe that our constituents will be asking us and that we should be getting answers to these questions before we give up our authority to declare war and turn it to the President of the United States to subjectively make a decision as to whether or not we are in danger. We are not talking about a danger like 9-11. We are talking about a potential danger that is somewhere in the future. Whether it is 1 month or 1 year, one thing is clear, nobody has said that we are in danger before November 5. That date just comes up, not as frequently as 9-11 does.”