United States House of Representatives Member Walter Jones (R-NC) has for years ardently advocated terminating US involvement in the Afghanistan War. Jones’ efforts in this regard include his legislation introduced in the House, letters to US presidents and congressional leaders, interviews, and House floor speeches.
What often most surprises people is that this prominent proponent of ending the war represents a district with a population largely composed of current and retired US military members and their families. In such a district, people may suppose that advocating for peace would be unpopular. Yet, Jones has continued winning reelection despite well-funded efforts to defeat him.
The military nature of Jones’ district is set out in an intriguing Saturday article by Ned Barnett at the News & Observer, as is Jones’ suggestion that many military people support his position on the Afghanistan War, Barnett writes:
Jones’ Eastern North Carolina district includes three Marine bases, Cherry Point, New River and Camp Lejeune, and his constituents include 80,000 retired military personnel, but he said he encounters little opposition to his call to get out of Afghanistan. That includes, he said, Marines who have completed multiple tours there. He said, ‘You ask them is it changing and they say, “No, nothing is changing.”‘
A reminder of the costs of war measured in American military members’ lives lost is visible on the wall outside Jones’ House office in Washington, DC. There, Barnett relates, are hung photographs of 566 US military personnel form Eastern North Carolina who have died in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.
Jones, who is an Advisory Board member for the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity, will be joining his former House colleague Ron Paul and other speakers to address issues of war and peace at the institute’s September 9 conference. Tickets for the conference, to be held near the Washington Dulles Airport, are available here.
