BBC NEWS | Americas | ‘Freedom fries’ lawmaker’s U-turn

Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC) has reversed his support for the Iraq war and now wants the troops brought home. He was formerly an adamant supporter of the war who led the whole Congressional “Freedom Fries” campaign to rename fried potatoes to get back at those wimpy peaceloving French bastards.

His change of heart took place when he attended the funeral of a US sergeant and listened as the widow read her husband’s last letter home. He’s attended a lot of funerals, actually, and written over 1,300 letters of condolence, and he displays the photos of service members killed in action outside his office door.

You know, I admire that he’s taken the time to attend, to condole, to publicly show his respect for the fallen. And I admire that he has this to say:

I just feel that the reason of going in for weapons of mass destruction, the ability of the Iraqis to make a nuclear weapon, that’s all been proven that it was never there.

He comes off as a righteous Rightie – not so the commander-in-chief, who has never yet attended a funeral for someone killed in Iraq, and barely acknowledged wounded when welcoming uninjured troops home. Although according to Snope, he really did go jogging with an amputee vet. That’s a nice heartwarming story. However, it wouldn’t play well in the papers for the Resident to be associated with icky dead solders. So no funerals for you, W!