Congressman Walter Jones is a Republican from North Carolina, he voted for the war in Iraq, and he coined the term Freedom Fries. So he’s obviously no peacenik, but he is the first Republican to break with the White House and call for a firm date to withdraw American troops from Iraq. He says he had a change of heart when he saw the devastation this war has caused to military families across the country.
Military families aren’t just speaking to their Congressional representatives; they are speaking loudly to all of us by refusing to allow their sons and daughter, husbands and wives to enlist. President Bush interpreted the November election as an affirmation of his agenda, but as we see from his plummeting poll numbers, the unpopularity of his policy proposals, and the dramatic drop in recruitment numbers, he was wrong.
Congressman Jones said in an interview last Sunday with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that he votes his conscience first, his constituents second, his party third. Even if this is just a good line, it’s exactly the way we need our politicians to think if we are ever to get out of this terrible mess in Iraq.
