Freedom Fries

Remember Representative Walter Jones (R-North Carolina)? If you don't, he's the genius behind the campaign to rename french fries and french toast to the patriotic "freedom fries" and "freedom toast." Mr. Jones was also an ardent supporter of the invasion of Iraq. It's been two years now and Jones has had a change of heart and has initiated legislation that would require the US to set up a timetable to withdraw our troops from Iraq. I have no doubt that Mr. Jones felt genuine emotions when he attended the funeral of a fallen soldier, as would any of us, but couldn't he have seen this coming? Instead of his stupid publicity stunt he should have thought about the consequences of his actions. But obviously at the time, it was more important to change American menus rather than change the President's mind.

[I have the feeling that the bad taste that Jones' new standpoint leaves in the mouths of anti-war supporters is due not to us not wanting the US out of Iraq, but because it seems like Walter Jones is really just being selfish here. He dosen't want to see any more US troops get killed. The time for this was in March 2003 when we were considering invading without any exit strategy. He does not care about the Iraqi people, which is the new supposed justification for the invasion.

Here are some solutions: We do need to set up a timetable for our withdrawal so that we have something to aim for. We do need to let the Iraqis have more influence on what our troops can and can't do. We do need to stop trying to benefit financially or militarily from our invasion of Iraq. Handing Iraq peacekeeping over to the UN would perhaps be a move that would show our willingness to help rather than exploit. —Misha]