‘My Daddy’s Not Dead Yet’: Congressman Pens Book About Iraq War Regrets

ABC's Tom Shine reports from Washington: North Carolina Republican Walter Jones' conscience is really bothering him!  Back in 2002, he enthusiastically voted for and supported Bush's call to invade Iraq.  Not only that,  he also ridiculed France for not supporting the U.S. effort.  Remember "Freedom Fries?"  Jones and fellow Republican Bob Ney waged a successful campaign to have "French Fries" renamed "Freedom Fries" on all the House cafeteria menus.  But that all changed when he attended a funeral for a young sergeant killed in Iraq and listened to the fallen soldier's last letter to his family which was read at the service.  Jones began to write his own letters to the families of those killed in Iraq and came to strongly regret his 2002 vote.
 
Now Jones is writing a book called "My Daddy's Not Dead Yet" as he ponders yet another vote on another war, he will soon have to cast.  Jones talked to George C. Wilson who wrote a very moving article for Congressdaily.com called "Atonement."  In his article Wilson explains how Jones chose the title for his book.
 
Jones was reading Dr. Seuss to some kids at the Johnson Elementary School at camp Lejeune, which is located in his district and when he finished he asked for questions.  "My Daddy's Not Dead Yet," said a little boy.  "My Daddy's Not Dead Yet," the little boy repeated.  Wilson said that statement devastated the congressman because he knew that he "had played go-along politics with the life of that little boy's father instead of listening to God" and voting against the resolution.  "I profess to be a man of faith, Jones said, but I didn't vote my conscience."
 
Jones tells Wilson that he has been meeting with retired military officials to discuss Afghanistan and whether to send more troops.  He said one general told him that the "Army and Marine Corps are worn out.  To ask them to send more troops to Afghanistan could break them."
 
Jones intends to give any profits from his book to programs to treat the wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan and he warns about what could happen to our already messy health care system as they come home.  He told Wilson, "The American people have no idea of what's coming as it relates to taking care of those veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan with traumatic brain injuries and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder…Some physicians who have studied the extent and cost of treating the mentally wounded have told me It will overwhelm both the government and private medical systems."