by Charles Coughlin

A Republican US Congressman has made a very public break with President George Bush over the war with Iraq. The media coverage has been minimal even though the assertions by Jones are shared by millions of Americans. A recent news article reports “Jones now says we went to war ‘with no justification.’ He has challenged the Bush administration, quizzing Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other presidential advisers in public hearings. He has lined the hallway outside his office with ‘the faces of the fallen.’ Jones represents the state’s most military congressional district, running from Camp Lejeune along the coast through Cherry Point, up to the Outer Banks. ‘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,’ Jones said. ‘Congress must be told the truth.’ Jones is no favorite of the White House these days, or of his fellow Republicans, particularly those in leadership roles. The same impulse that prompted him to get mad at the French now makes Jones criticize the war and, lately, House ethics rules. Jones accepts that his emotions cost him influence, but he insists he can live with the consequences.”

The most interesting piece of information is that Jones’ district is “the state’s most military congressional district.” Jones is no doubt getting feedback from soldiers, who risk their lives daily for no good reason in Iraq, and the families of the soldiers, who don’t want their boys dying because the Bush administration lied to the public.

Most of our politicians are extremely intelligent, cunning individuals. It is extremely doubtful that they were “fooled” by the shabby propaganda assembled by Wolfowitz and Pearle before the Gulf War. It is also doubtful when they claim to be motivated by religious inspiration or anything other than their careers. They almost always make decisions based on what benefits them at the moment. For Republicans, it was important to be a “team player” and to go along with the war on Iraq back in 2003. To stand up and say that Bush was lying to the American public would have been political suicide back then.

Two years later and after the needless deaths of over 1,600 soldiers and the maiming of thousands more, Congressman Jones has “seen the light” and decided the war was wrong after all. Jones is almost certainly acting to preserve his job and to deflect a barrage of criticism from military families in his district.