AlterNet Mobile Edition:
"Like many others on Capitol Hill, the White House sold him on the idea that Saddam Hussein posed an imminent threat to the United States and that there were links between Iraq and 9/11. Angry that our allies saw such overwhelming evidence in a different light, Walter Jones insisted that french fries be renamed 'freedom fries' in House office building cafeterias.
Since the invasion, Jones has distinguished himself by actually paying attention to facts as the Bush administration's arguments started to show cracks. He began to see in Iraq what he saw Vietnam: a war justified by false pretenses and empty ideology that had the real consequence of needlessly killing American soldiers. Jones started sending personal letters with handwritten words of condolences to the families of every soldier killed in Iraq. The hallways outside of his Capitol Hill office are lined with the faces of the fallen.
My family recently went to Washington to thank Walter Jones for his efforts. One of those pictures in his hallway is of my brother, Sgt. Sherwood Baker. One of those letters he sent is on my living room table.
Sherwood was killed in Baghdad last year. His death has kept my faith at the fore. That faith is challenged, quite honestly, when I hear the warmakers extolling their belief in Christ as their savior as they drop cluster bombs and commit other people's children to the hell of war.
Walter Jones could easily be considered one of 'them' -- a Christian conservative. I sat next to him in his office and quickly relearned how wrong it is to label a person. As a Christian myself, I understood immediately that his personal belief in Christ has been the basis of his actions. The most obvious aspect of our meeting was the authenticity of his humility.
He began by speaking specifically to my mother and the mothers of two other fallen soldiers who were with us.
Tears have been easy for me to come by over the last 14 months since Sherwood died. The catalyst could be the unabated laughter of my nephew or the national anthem; anything, really, that brings Sherwood to mind.
When Walter Jones said this simple sentence, 'If I knew then what I know now, I wouldn't have voted for this war,' I found myself unable to hold them back.
I waded through the election rhetoric last year waiting to hear those courageous words. My brother was on the security detail of the Iraq Survey Group. He died looking for those non-existent weapons of mass destruction that President Bush used as a rationale for this disastrous war."
Yep, I was one of those...they sold me on the war too, with the lies of WMDs and Saddam's "intentions". It makes me feel like a fool now that the truth is plain to see, and I feel like they (the White House, neo-cons and spineless Democrats in Congress) took advantage of 9/11 and the country's desire to strike back and somebody, anybody. I'm afraid we've made things worse, the world is less safe and America is less safe because of invading Iraq. Anyway, I thought it was interesting to see one of our Congressmen in the spotlight, getting called out as a good guy on the up and up. Way to go Walter Jones!