Whether or not you agree with Congressman Walter Jones you have to admit he has a rare trait among politicians. There are many elected officials who are clever, intelligent or articulate – but there are not many whose courage matches their other skills.

Congressman Jones have has stood up and disagreed with his own President, the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of State about how the United States can best win the war on terrorism.

Today, the debate on the war in Iraq has boiled down to an argument between those who say we should stay the course and those who say we should get out. But one important question is not being asked: Why are we stuck in a war we should have won already?

Congressman Jones, in his own way, is looking for the question. He has asked for a full Congressional Debate on the war. And he is asking if Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, and Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, showed poor judgment as regards the war – poor judgment which may have included giving Congress inaccurate information.

I guess the point is, if you’re the Secretary of Defense and you advocate starting a war – you’d better have the judgment to win it.

Congressman Jones is not saying the war on terrorism is wrong. But he is saying is how we have fought it may have turned out to be wrong. He is asking who is responsible and he wants Congress to debate this issue.

These questions are important. The war on terrorism is not going to disappear, it is not going away – whether we pull stay in Iraq or whether we pull out. What is important – if we are to win the war on terrorism in the long run – is to learn from mistakes we have made in Iraq.

Congressman Jones is one of the few legislators raising those questions and he wants Congress to debate them. You, hopefully, don’t have to agree with him to concur that debate is important and the sooner it happens the better.

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