Congressman “Freedom Fries” Wants Iraq Withdrawal

Walter Jones, Jr. (R-NC) was on ABC’s “This Week” talking about legislation he intends to introduce this week in the House of Representatives. It can be dressed up by the GOP and one can argue over the details, but the bill will, in effect, set a timetable for the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq. It is one thing for New York and California liberals to talk about this, but it is quite another for a conservative congressman from Dixie to make such a move. All the more so since Mr. Jones is the man who changed Capitol Hill’s “French Fries” to “Freedom Fries.”

Mr. Jones is that rarest of politicians, a man who not only admits he made a mistake but also is trying to right the wrong. And this isn’t about banning the word “French” from the three cafeterias’ menus in Congress. Having voted for the war in Iraq, he has since told his local paper, the North Carolina News and Observer, "If we were given misinformation intentionally by people in this administration, to commit the authority to send boys, and in some instances girls, to go into Iraq, that is wrong." In his office in DC, there are the “faces of the fallen,” photos of the KIAs whose funerals are never seen and whose returns home in flag-draped boxes are almost anonymous.

Since his conversion on the matter of Iraq, he has been writing letters to the families of the dead soldiers and marines. It seems an act of penance, and to be truthful, it is almost excessive. It makes a good exercise in humility – try it. Write a letter to a parent whose child died because one voted the wrong way. And do it dozens or hundreds of times.

On “This Week,” Congressman Jones said that the time has come to get the US troops out of Iraq in an orderly manner that allows Iraqis to fight their own fight. His sincerity and willingness to risk his political future are sufficient to prevent one from replying “Vietnamization.” With 140,000 troops in Iraq, and with the problems of Iran and North Korea, he told the oleaginous George Stephanopoulos that it would be a real tragedy if the two of them were having the same discussion three or four years from now.

There are voices in the Republican Party that are beginning to doubt the wisdom of the war in the first place, but since that cannot be changed, they are turning their minds to “what next?” Democrats and Independents should welcome them with open arms because they have the power to get a solution on the table. While a thorough reading of history makes one rather sure that American troops will be in Iraq in 2025, Mr. Jones and like-minded conservatives can create a case for optimism. Meanwhile, the Iraqi Civil War continues.


© Copyright 2005 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.
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