Republican Says Get Out Of Afghanistan
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CodeManBob
Jun 7, 2011, 12:34:36 PM6/7/11
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From June 7 NEW YORK TIMES:
Antiwar Republican Is No Longer Party’s Pariah
By JAMES DAO
GREENVILLE, N.C. — On matters like abortion, military spending and
religion, Representative Walter B. Jones seems thoroughly in tune with
this conservative, staunchly Republican district in eastern North
Carolina, home to the Marine Corps’ Camp Lejeune and thousands of
military retirees.
On the issue of war, however, Mr. Jones has defied typecasting. An
early critic of the American invasion of Iraq, he has been ostracized
by the Republican leadership in Congress. And now he is emerging as a
leading advocate for swiftly withdrawing American forces from
Afghanistan, a position that has made him, of all things, a liberal
hero.
“When you talk about war, political parties don’t matter,” he said in
an interview.
But Mr. Jones may no longer be the outlier he was six years ago. Late
last month, an amendment intended to accelerate the withdrawal of
American troops from Afghanistan sponsored by Mr. Jones and
Representative Jim McGovern, Democrat of Massachusetts, nearly passed
— in part because 26 Republicans broke with their leadership to
support it, triple the number who voted for a similar measure last
year. Their ranks included at least three freshmen elected with Tea
Party support.
Some foreign policy analysts now see Mr. Jones, 68; Representative Ron
Paul, Republican of Texas; and a small coterie of Tea Party stalwarts
as the leading edge of a conservative movement to rein in American
military power — a break from the muscular foreign policy of President
George W. Bush.
“They reflect a growing discontent within the Republican Party about
the wars and a growing feeling that they don’t want to spend money on
them anymore,” said John Isaacs, executive director of the Council for
a Livable World, an advocacy group that promotes arms control. “They
are military noninterventionists.”
Mr. Jones agreed, saying: “We can’t police the world anymore. We’re
not the world power. It’s China. Our economy is in chaos.”
Conversations with voters in Mr. Jones’s district, which embraces much
of North Carolina’s Atlantic coastline, suggest that many who were
baffled or infuriated by his opposition to the Iraq war in 2005 are
liking his views on Afghanistan in 2011.
At a Memorial Day event in Beaufort on May 28, August Braddy, 68,
declared that Mr. Jones — who over eight terms has voted with the
American Conservative Union more than 80 percent of the time — was too
liberal. But on Afghanistan, Mr. Braddy, who was wearing a red Tea
Party shirt, said he thought Mr. Jones was right.
“We’re broke; we can’t afford it,” he said. “We did what we went there
to do: get Bin Laden.”
Polls suggest that Republican voters are moving in Mr. Jones’s
direction. In a New York Times/CBS News poll last month, 43 percent of
Republicans said the United States should reduce troop strength in
Afghanistan, double the number who said that in November 2009. Some
prominent Republicans, including Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi and
Grover Norquist, the antitax champion, have also begun questioning the
American mission in Afghanistan.
Still, the vast majority of Republicans in Congress remain supportive
of the war. On Mr. Jones’s amendment, 207 Republicans voted no, while
178 Democrats voted in favor. But the amendment failed by just 11
votes, and Mr. Jones believes that by fall, it will pass.
For many of the Republicans who are questioning the war, cost is
clearly the driving factor. Mr. Jones makes that case in his district,
telling voters that spending $8 billion a month to prop up what he
calls a corrupt government is a waste of money.
“If we’re going to cut programs for children who need milk in the
morning, if we’re going to cut programs for seniors who need a
sandwich at lunch, if we’re going to cut veterans benefits, then, for
God’s sake, let’s bring back our troops from Afghanistan,” he said in
Beaufort, to loud applause.
But Mr. Jones’s wrenching odyssey from disciple of Speaker Newt
Gingrich to war opponent was far more about personal guilt than budget
deficits.
The son of a Democratic congressman, Mr. Jones was elected in the
Republican tide of 1994 with the support of a conservative icon,
Senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina. He came to be a steadfast
supporter of Mr. Gingrich’s small-government agenda.
In 2002, Mr. Jones voted for the resolution authorizing the invasion
of Iraq. He also persuaded House cafeterias to rename their French
fries “freedom fries,” tweaking the French government for opposing the
invasion.
But Mr. Jones now says he had misgivings about the vote almost
immediately. After he attended his first funeral at Camp Lejeune for a
Marine killed just weeks into the invasion, those misgivings grew into
pangs of doubt.
He started writing letters to the relatives of every American killed
in Iraq or Afghanistan. (He has signed more than 10,370 at last
count.) And he began consulting with critics of the invasion,
including Gen. Anthony C. Zinni, a retired Marine.
“I came to believe we were misled, we were lied to,” Mr. Jones said
recently. “The people around Bush manipulated the intelligence.”
In June 2005, he stunned his party establishment by appearing at a
news conference with Mr. Paul and Representative Dennis Kucinich, a
liberal Ohio Democrat, to call on Mr. Bush to start reducing troop
levels in Iraq.
Mr. Jones’s offices were immediately flooded with calls from angry
constituents who branded him a traitor and demanded his resignation.
He made the cover of Mother Jones magazine in 2006 and drew a tough
primary challenge in 2008 from an opponent who called him “a poster
boy for the left.” Mr. Jones won handily.
A convert to Roman Catholicism, Mr. Jones says he has not missed a
Sunday Mass in nearly 40 years. His faith, he says, caused him to
question the war.
“I did not vote my conscience and I sent kids to die, and they didn’t
have to go,” he said. “I thank God that he made me feel guilty about
my vote on Iraq.”
Afghanistan is different from Iraq, he says, because he believes that
the latter invasion was justified. But he has come to believe that the
strategy of trying to strengthen the government of President Hamid
Karzai of Afghanistan and build that country’s security forces is
doomed.
In Beaufort, about 50 miles from Camp Lejeune, several former Marines
at the Memorial Day event agreed.
“We’re losing a lot of people there and not seeing anything in
return,” said Gregory Barnett, who spent 22 years in the Marine Corps.
“Now that we’ve gotten Bin Laden, we’ve been there long enough.”
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: June 6, 2011
An earlier version of this article misstated the timing of the vote on
Mr. Jones's troop withdrawal amendment as "last week."
Antiwar Republican Is No Longer Party’s Pariah
By JAMES DAO
GREENVILLE, N.C. — On matters like abortion, military spending and
religion, Representative Walter B. Jones seems thoroughly in tune with
this conservative, staunchly Republican district in eastern North
Carolina, home to the Marine Corps’ Camp Lejeune and thousands of
military retirees.
On the issue of war, however, Mr. Jones has defied typecasting. An
early critic of the American invasion of Iraq, he has been ostracized
by the Republican leadership in Congress. And now he is emerging as a
leading advocate for swiftly withdrawing American forces from
Afghanistan, a position that has made him, of all things, a liberal
hero.
“When you talk about war, political parties don’t matter,” he said in
an interview.
But Mr. Jones may no longer be the outlier he was six years ago. Late
last month, an amendment intended to accelerate the withdrawal of
American troops from Afghanistan sponsored by Mr. Jones and
Representative Jim McGovern, Democrat of Massachusetts, nearly passed
— in part because 26 Republicans broke with their leadership to
support it, triple the number who voted for a similar measure last
year. Their ranks included at least three freshmen elected with Tea
Party support.
Some foreign policy analysts now see Mr. Jones, 68; Representative Ron
Paul, Republican of Texas; and a small coterie of Tea Party stalwarts
as the leading edge of a conservative movement to rein in American
military power — a break from the muscular foreign policy of President
George W. Bush.
“They reflect a growing discontent within the Republican Party about
the wars and a growing feeling that they don’t want to spend money on
them anymore,” said John Isaacs, executive director of the Council for
a Livable World, an advocacy group that promotes arms control. “They
are military noninterventionists.”
Mr. Jones agreed, saying: “We can’t police the world anymore. We’re
not the world power. It’s China. Our economy is in chaos.”
Conversations with voters in Mr. Jones’s district, which embraces much
of North Carolina’s Atlantic coastline, suggest that many who were
baffled or infuriated by his opposition to the Iraq war in 2005 are
liking his views on Afghanistan in 2011.
At a Memorial Day event in Beaufort on May 28, August Braddy, 68,
declared that Mr. Jones — who over eight terms has voted with the
American Conservative Union more than 80 percent of the time — was too
liberal. But on Afghanistan, Mr. Braddy, who was wearing a red Tea
Party shirt, said he thought Mr. Jones was right.
“We’re broke; we can’t afford it,” he said. “We did what we went there
to do: get Bin Laden.”
Polls suggest that Republican voters are moving in Mr. Jones’s
direction. In a New York Times/CBS News poll last month, 43 percent of
Republicans said the United States should reduce troop strength in
Afghanistan, double the number who said that in November 2009. Some
prominent Republicans, including Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi and
Grover Norquist, the antitax champion, have also begun questioning the
American mission in Afghanistan.
Still, the vast majority of Republicans in Congress remain supportive
of the war. On Mr. Jones’s amendment, 207 Republicans voted no, while
178 Democrats voted in favor. But the amendment failed by just 11
votes, and Mr. Jones believes that by fall, it will pass.
For many of the Republicans who are questioning the war, cost is
clearly the driving factor. Mr. Jones makes that case in his district,
telling voters that spending $8 billion a month to prop up what he
calls a corrupt government is a waste of money.
“If we’re going to cut programs for children who need milk in the
morning, if we’re going to cut programs for seniors who need a
sandwich at lunch, if we’re going to cut veterans benefits, then, for
God’s sake, let’s bring back our troops from Afghanistan,” he said in
Beaufort, to loud applause.
But Mr. Jones’s wrenching odyssey from disciple of Speaker Newt
Gingrich to war opponent was far more about personal guilt than budget
deficits.
The son of a Democratic congressman, Mr. Jones was elected in the
Republican tide of 1994 with the support of a conservative icon,
Senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina. He came to be a steadfast
supporter of Mr. Gingrich’s small-government agenda.
In 2002, Mr. Jones voted for the resolution authorizing the invasion
of Iraq. He also persuaded House cafeterias to rename their French
fries “freedom fries,” tweaking the French government for opposing the
invasion.
But Mr. Jones now says he had misgivings about the vote almost
immediately. After he attended his first funeral at Camp Lejeune for a
Marine killed just weeks into the invasion, those misgivings grew into
pangs of doubt.
He started writing letters to the relatives of every American killed
in Iraq or Afghanistan. (He has signed more than 10,370 at last
count.) And he began consulting with critics of the invasion,
including Gen. Anthony C. Zinni, a retired Marine.
“I came to believe we were misled, we were lied to,” Mr. Jones said
recently. “The people around Bush manipulated the intelligence.”
In June 2005, he stunned his party establishment by appearing at a
news conference with Mr. Paul and Representative Dennis Kucinich, a
liberal Ohio Democrat, to call on Mr. Bush to start reducing troop
levels in Iraq.
Mr. Jones’s offices were immediately flooded with calls from angry
constituents who branded him a traitor and demanded his resignation.
He made the cover of Mother Jones magazine in 2006 and drew a tough
primary challenge in 2008 from an opponent who called him “a poster
boy for the left.” Mr. Jones won handily.
A convert to Roman Catholicism, Mr. Jones says he has not missed a
Sunday Mass in nearly 40 years. His faith, he says, caused him to
question the war.
“I did not vote my conscience and I sent kids to die, and they didn’t
have to go,” he said. “I thank God that he made me feel guilty about
my vote on Iraq.”
Afghanistan is different from Iraq, he says, because he believes that
the latter invasion was justified. But he has come to believe that the
strategy of trying to strengthen the government of President Hamid
Karzai of Afghanistan and build that country’s security forces is
doomed.
In Beaufort, about 50 miles from Camp Lejeune, several former Marines
at the Memorial Day event agreed.
“We’re losing a lot of people there and not seeing anything in
return,” said Gregory Barnett, who spent 22 years in the Marine Corps.
“Now that we’ve gotten Bin Laden, we’ve been there long enough.”
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: June 6, 2011
An earlier version of this article misstated the timing of the vote on
Mr. Jones's troop withdrawal amendment as "last week."
Kenneth Mayers
Jun 7, 2011, 1:36:37 PM6/7/11
to nm...@googlegroups.com
Now that is encouraging !
Thanks,
Ken
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