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An Antiwar Republican, No Longer His Party’s Pariah
By JAMES DAO
Published: June 6, 2011
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.
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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 five years ago. Last week, 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 reign 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 right now.”
Conversations with voters in Mr. Jones’s district, which embraces much of North Carolina’s Atlantic coastline, suggest voters who were baffled or infuriated by his opposition to Iraq in 2005 are liking his views on Afghanistan in 2011.
At a Memorial Day event in Beaufort last Saturday, 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 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 House Speaker Newt Gingrich to antiwar advocate 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 the late conservative icon, Senator Jesse Helms. 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 famously convinced cafeterias in the House to rename their French fries “freedom fries” — tweaking the French government for opposing the invasion.
But Mr. Jones now says he had misgivings about that vote almost immediately. And 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 service member 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 retired Gen. Anthony C. Zinni of the Marines.
“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, the liberal Ohio Democrat, to call on President Bush to start drawing down troops in Iraq.
His 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, but then 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 hasn’t 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 than Iraq, he says, because he feels the invasion was justified. But he has come to believe that the strategy of trying to strengthen the government of President Hamid Karzai and build the Afghan security forces is doomed to failure.
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.”
By JAMES DAO
Published: June 6, 2011
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.
Blogs
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 five years ago. Last week, 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 reign 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 right now.”
Conversations with voters in Mr. Jones’s district, which embraces much of North Carolina’s Atlantic coastline, suggest voters who were baffled or infuriated by his opposition to Iraq in 2005 are liking his views on Afghanistan in 2011.
At a Memorial Day event in Beaufort last Saturday, 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 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 House Speaker Newt Gingrich to antiwar advocate 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 the late conservative icon, Senator Jesse Helms. 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 famously convinced cafeterias in the House to rename their French fries “freedom fries” — tweaking the French government for opposing the invasion.
But Mr. Jones now says he had misgivings about that vote almost immediately. And 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 service member 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 retired Gen. Anthony C. Zinni of the Marines.
“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, the liberal Ohio Democrat, to call on President Bush to start drawing down troops in Iraq.
His 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, but then 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 hasn’t 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 than Iraq, he says, because he feels the invasion was justified. But he has come to believe that the strategy of trying to strengthen the government of President Hamid Karzai and build the Afghan security forces is doomed to failure.
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.”
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