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E MAIL THIS STORY 'Freedom fries' pollie in U-turn From correspondents in Washington June 13, 2005 A PROMINENT politician, who prompted cafeterias in the US Congress to cha nge the name of their french fries to "freedom fries" in anger over Fran ce's opposition to the Iraq war, has now turned against the conflict. Representative Walter Jones wants a firm schedule on the withdrawal of US troops. The North Carolina Republican has written more than 1300 letters of condo lence to the families of soldiers killed in Iraq. He will introduce legislation this week calling for a firm timetable on t he withdrawal of US troops. "This is what I believe is the right thing to do for our military first; and secondly, I think we are doing everything we can do in Iraq to give them an opportunity to have a democracy, to defend themselves," he said on US TV program This Week.
richmedia=yes&site=news§ion=breakingnews&adsize=300x250&p agepos=1 President George W Bush's administration has refused to set a timetable for withdrawing its forces from the war-torn country. Asked about his change of heart on the war, Mr Jones said he had attended the funeral of a soldier, a married father of three, who was killed in Iraq two years ago. "That really has been on my mind and my heart ever since. "When I look at the number of men and women who have been killed - it's a lmost 1700 now, in addition close to 12,000 have been severely wounded - and I just feel that the reason of going in for weapons of mass destruc tion, the ability of the Iraqis to make a nuclear weapon, that's all bee n proven that it was never there. In March 2003, just before the US-led invasion of Iraq, Representative Bo b Ney, chairman of the committee on House Administration, ordered that t he term "french fries" be removed from all restaurant menus in the three House office buildings and replaced with freedom fries. Mr Jones joined Mr Ney in taking the action, issuing a joint statement sa ying: "This action today is a small, but symbolic effort to show the str ong displeasure of many on Capitol Hill with the actions of our so-calle d ally, France."
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