Congressman’s pen helps him atone for vote
Jones personally signs letters to war dead’s kin
RALEIGH, N.C. — On a Sunday morning more than two weeks after four U.S. soldiers were ambushed and killed in Niger, Rep. Walter Jones sat at the desk in his North Carolina office, doing what he’s done more than 11,000 times in 14 years: signing letters to families of the dead troops.
“My heart aches as I write this letter for I realize you are suffering a great loss,” the letter begins.
It’s a form letter, but the Republican congressman signs each one personally — penance, he says, for voting yes for the Iraq war in 2002.
“For me, it’s a sacred responsibility that I have to communicate my condolences to a family,” Jones said in a telephone interview. “And it’s very special to me because it goes back to my regretting that I voted to go into the Iraq War.”
While President Donald Trump and his staff feuded publicly this month with a congresswoman and the pregnant widow of a soldier killed Oct. 4 in Niger, Jones was quietly continuing his letter writing.
He gets permission from a military liaison who makes sure that family members want condolences from a congressman they likely never heard of. Then, from a desk drawer in his office in Greenville, he retrieves the same black-ink fountain pen that he’s used since he began this ritual years ago. In some cases, he sends letters to multiple relatives of a single soldier.
Jones’ letter-writing began in 2003after he attended the funeral of Marine Sgt. Michael Bitz, who was killed in March 2003, not long after the Iraq War began.
On Oct. 21, Jones signed letters to the families of Sgt. La David Johnson and three other soldiers killed in a firefight with militants tied to the Islamic State group in Niger. He signed eight letters that day, followed by evening Mass.
Janina Bitz-vasquez, the widow of the Marine whose funeral triggered Jones’ epiphany, won’t say if she supports Jones’ stance on the war. She said she’s honored that he continues to honor the families of dead service members.
More importantly, she said, it “sets a standard for taking personal responsibility and accountability” for other political and military leaders.
Jones, 74, was first elected to the House in 1994. He estimates that 70,000 or so veterans lived in his district in 2002. Most, Jones said, believed that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, as President George W. Bush and his administration told the public — a belief that turned out to be unfounded.
Jones still blames himself for his vote, even though he alone couldn’t have altered the 296-133 decision.
“I will never forget my mistake because people died because of my mistake,” he said. “I bought into believing that President Bush didn’t really want to go to war. That’s how naive I was at the time. … I could have voted no, and I didn’t.”