According to The Huffington Post, 4,486 American service members died in Operation Iraqi Freedom. When including non-Americans, that death toll rises to nearly 500,000. Many representatives from both sides of the aisle didn’t do their jobs; they were swept away by they horror of September 11 as much as we all were, but not many have owned it.
Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC), yes (R), has finally done so.
Jones was one of 297 congressman and 77 senators who voted to authorize the Iraq War in October 2002. He was such a staunch supporter, initially, that he led the effort to rename french fries as “freedom fries” in congressional cafeterias after France came out in opposition to the war. As so many were, he was carried along with the ocean of ‘Murican pride and right to fight tyranny above all else, even when it came to our fried potatoes.
When the Towers went down, I was holding my newborn daughter, released from the hospital on Sept 9, 2011. My husband was still in his four years of inactive duty after leaving the Marine Corps with an honorable discharge before this event occurred, and I knew we were going to war. They say some people “drink the Kool-Aid”? Well, I ate the Freedom Fries, and I lusted for revenge; it was part of being an American, according to the propaganda, right? We were lied to, but we were also very willing to be lied to — as Jones points out.
During an interview on The Tyler Cralle Show, Jones repented for his hasty vote, something that I don’t often expect from a Republican. Often? Read: never.
He added:
I did not do what I should have done to read and find out whether Bush was telling us the truth about Saddam being responsible for 9/11 and having weapons of mass destruction.
Because I did not do my job then I helped kill 4,000 Americans, and I will go to my grave regretting that.
Listen to the interview (relevant portion at 23:00), below:
Well, Mr. Jones, not many have a chance to do much better during this admission — and with your new understanding of the terrible consequences not working together can cause, it is time to make up for it.
Being wrong is something we are all “guilty” of, at some time or another, but now is your chance do the right thing and get behind our veterans. Get behind our poor, our homeless, our hungry and put your effort into rebuilding this country we started tearing down and selling to corporations one piece at a time in our push for Oil and Power safety and revenge.
Feature image via Huntress Uncommon Sense
Good to hear, most of them go to their graves thinking, “I made this much $ for corp America and myself, leaving my children well off, the nation, well, no so much.”
Good for you, Mr. Jones.
I don’t approve of his political views. He’s a staunch right-winger.
But I respect him as a person for making this admission.
Sept 9, 2001…yes?
Yes, 2001, oops. 🙂
Not a mention of the half a million dead Iraqis, though.
“When including non-Americans, that death toll rises to nearly 500,000.”
Yes, it does. A number I find it hard to sleep with, I wonder about the representatives.
No, not by Walter Jones and it wasn’t mentioned specifically in the article. American deaths are in the minority in this travesty.
I believe it was over 900,000 Iraqis.
Being someone who always opposed the war, it’s a bitter taste to hear this man repent of his foolishness.
I wasn’t privy to the “intelligence.” I didn’t have a government job. I wasn’t representing millions of constituents.
I was just some ordinary gal who could add two and two and realize they did not make five, and that 15 Saudi hijackers didn’t come from Iraq . . . but we stumbled forward into Bush’s horrific mistake anyway. How destructive!
Bush did not make a mistake - he knew very well what he was doing! He and Cheney should be in prison for life!
we the people should demand they be put away for life !!! BUSH AND CHANEY BOTH !!!!
I agree
Thank you for publishing this Congressman’s statements.
Much as this is a step in the right direction, I’m curious why the American deaths are the only ones he regrets. Many of the 500,000+ other deaths were perfectly innocent people, who had no part in any of the anti-American forces we were warring with at that time and place. Shouldn’t those be part of the regret?
what haunts his dreams?
The “freedom fries” debate began after France refused to let our Britain-based F-111s overfly French territory on the way to bomb Libya, a raid which killed Gaddafi’s daughter. That was quite a while before 9/11. js
Wikipedia sucks. You are right, but it had faded off. There was a big resurgence of this foolishness after 9/11. I got a lot of stupid comments/attacks for calling it a stupid movement both times.
I NEVER understood why the American media only cared about counting American casualties, as if all the Iraqi casualties didn’t matter, or weren’t human or something. Very disturbing. This weirdo Jones continues to express that same childish tunnel vision.
Really dude? You really thought intel from a guy named Curveball would be 100% spot on?
The whole lot of the Bush administration deserve prison time. There’s one especially heinous person who deserves an especially long prison term if he ever gets out, Prof. John Yoo. He was the writer of the “white paper” that allowed our government to conduct extraordinary rendition/kidnapping, murder, torture of detainees up to and including children in front of their parents, torture including rape.
In point of fact Prof. Yoo’s white paper allowed our government to negate Harry Truman’s signature on the Geneva Conventions on War. We need what some people have in the several states, a sunshine law that anything written must be revealed.
And yet, he’s not saying this to the Mainstream Media, and he’s not resigning, or calling out for his party to prosecute Bush/Cheney for their war crimes and lies, nor is he doing much else to make up for his horrific behavior.
Actions, not more words.
We progressives have known about this for years, the cult-like environment on the right. Liberals get criticized for their lack of cohesion but that’s what democracy is supposed to look like. We’ll be better off when the conservative side has real debate within their own ranks without threat of ostracism from the party. Republicans used to be capable of compromise, the country is screwed up today because their entire agenda is obstruction of the opposition.
All the written documents, especially the White Paper written by Constitutional scholar, Prof. John Yoo of UC Berkley. Who in this paper, wrote that torture of children was acceptable for “homeland defence.” Why did the administration of “the shrub” accept the White Paper and then implement the torture regimen? There’s only one reason for the torture of children, including rape of male children by our troops, terror! To terrorize the men who were fighting against US troops and their takeover of the Iraqi resources.