Once upon a time there was a boy named Felix. He always wanted to be a cowboy and he kept things that reminded him of his cowboy desires, including a hangman's noose.
But his proudest possessions were his cowboy boots. He wore them everywhere, even to his job. He tried other shoes -- football cleat on teams where he called some of this other players nasty names, but he always came back to his cowboy boots.
One day, Felix found himself in a campaign for his job against Jim, a man who wore military boots that he earned by actually serving in honorably in combat, something Felix had never done. Jim wore his boots during the campaign and challenged Felix on matters of war and peace.
One day, Felix, found himself trying on another type of footwear -- flip flops, because of the war and peace issue.
Throughout the campaign, Felix had said the war in Iraq was something that the U.S. had to keep fighting. He wanted to stay and keep up the war that his friends, George, Dick and Donny had started.
But when Felix's big brother, John, started saying the war and how it was being fought had to change, Felix also started to change the way he talked about the war. He no longer endorsed the idea of "staying the course" or "standing down when they stand up."
Instead, he talked about a different type of war that would need to be fought.
So, Felix was changing his footwear from his cowboy boots to flip flops. He may go back to the the cowboy boots, but he will still be keeping the flip flops with him.
Meanwhile, Jim, the man with the combat boots, will keep them on, because he has not flip flopped on the issue of war and peace.