Xavier University '08 Grad Dies In Iraq War: Lt. Mike Runyan Was From Newark, Ohio

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- An improvised explosive device killed 1Lt. Michael Runyan while he led troops on a convoy in Iraq's Diyala province. He went to high school in Ashland in northern Ohio and was an Army ROTC cadet at Xavier University in Cincinnati, where he earned a degree in criminal justice in 2008. His father was a judge and his mother was a high school teacher. The Pentagon lists his home address as Newark in Central Ohio. Friends who knew him at Xavier said he was a wonderful person. There are many heavy hearts on the campus today, and prayers for the young soldier's family. Lt. Runyan was 24 and now has joined that great band of brothers, those who served this nation courageously and faithfully and gave it everything. The photo above is from the Xavier ROTC website -- what a smile, and what a loss. Service in the armed forces is a serious business that can never be taken for granted. Yet we do seem to take our military for granted -- wars are going on, our troops are training, deploying, bleeding and dying. And we barely bother to notice. This is now up on the Xavier site:

"Runyan was assigned to Bravo Company, 52nd Infantry, out of Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, and was serving as an anti-tank Stryker Platoon leader. The University issued the following statement on Friday, July 23:'Every young man and woman who attends Xavier University contributes in no small measure to the community we create together at Xavier. The loss of any one of them wounds us all. Michael’s death also touches our hearts as he died courageously serving our country. We convey our deepest sorrow and most sincere condolences of the entire Xavier University community to Michael’s parents and family. We pray God’s love and blessing will comfort them through this time of sorrow.' Services are pending. The Xavier ROTC web site http://www.xavier.edu/military-science/1LT-Mike-Runyan.cfm will post information as it becomes available."

OH-08 GOP John Boehner: He Doesn't Know Israel Is A Middle East Democracy

Map Courtesy of FOX News
MIDDLETOWN, Ohio (TDB) -- The highest-ranking Republican in the U.S. House apparently doesn't understand that Israel -- the closest ally of the United States in the Middle East -- is a democracy. Either that, or the House GOP leader is so remarkably blind in his support for President Bush that he would stretch the truth and go out of his way to snub a friendly nation. Matt Hurley at the conservative Ohio blog Weapons of Mass Discussion has John Boehner's statement on the 5th anniversary of the Iraq War, which he reprints. Hurley doesn't note Boehner's slip into ignorance that praises the war as paving the way "for the first democracy in a part of the world that needs it most."

Ooops. Israel has been around since 1948, electing governments and prime ministers and parliamentarians who serve in the Knesset. It is a multi-party state. There is a segment of the world that does not consider Israel the first democracy in the Middle East, but they tend to be islamists, militants, or supporters of the Palestinian movement that someday hopes to drive the Jews in Israel into the sea. Boehner surely must not have meant to side with the islamists by slighting Israel's nearly 60 years as a democracy. Or did he distort the truth hoping to confuse Americans, who may not know the region's geography? Israel shares borders with Jordan, which is becoming a constitutional monarchy; Lebanon, which is struggling to regain some footing as a democracy; Egypt, which is a republic but has an authoritarian government, and Syria, which is considered a Baathist dictatorship. Turkey is in the region, too, and is considered a Middle Eastern a democracy. Tukey border Iraq, Boehner's "first democracy." And some of the Persian Gulf states are moving toward democracy.

The complete text of Boehner's statement on the war's 5th anniversary is here. His error about Israel appears in the first paragraph:

"In the five years that have passed since the start of this conflict, our men and women in uniform have heroically ousted a terrorist dictator, freed a nation, and planted the seeds for political reconciliation that will pave the way for the first democracy in a part of the world that needs it most. Today, after countless obstacles to our success over the past five years, Iraq's fledgling democracy is at long last taking important steps toward the ultimate goal of self-rule."

DNC Enlists Ohio Vet To Slam John McCain: Went From Factory Floor To Army Rangers

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- Former Army ranger Roger Martinez delivered today's Democratic radio address, and the Ohio vet who served tours in Iraq and Afghanistan wasn't saluting GOP presidential candidate John McCain. He sees the Arizona senator continuing the policies of George Bush and described him as totally out of touch with the economic struggles of working families. Martinez did three separate deployments with the 1st Ranger Battalion and says U.S. troops are "fighting valiantly in Iraq" but cannot overcome that nation's political problems.

The complete text of his radio address is here. While much of it is about the war, Martinez also speaks about his days in an Ohio factory alongside his father and brother, and how the veterans on the shop floor encouraged him to enlist. Unfortunately, the plant's location isn't mentioned. Here's Martinez, now a student at the University of Texas at San Antonio, about his time in Ohio:

"Before I joined the U.S. Army, I worked with my father and older brother in a factory in Ohio and have many friends still working in those same factories. It was on that factory floor where veterans from all eras of the military encouraged me to serve my country and to see the world. But it was my brother joining the Army Reserves that really opened my eyes to the great opportunities that military service can provide. I am so thankful that I followed their advice. But it was also on that factory floor that I learned that all the hard work in the world isn't enough for so many working families, when Washington is more interested in helping the ultra-rich than the working families.

"After working in Washington for 25 years, and admitting that he does not understand the economy, John McCain is out of touch with the struggles of American families like mine. He says the economy is strong, but how can he not see that families just like mine are struggling to pay for out of control health care costs, home heating bills, gasoline, and college tuition? He hasn't even put out a plan to address the mortgage crisis."

A military-related blog called VetVoice could have some interesting comments later today about Martinez and his partisan take on the McCain candidacy. VetVoice generally is opposed to the war.

Godspeed Maj. Andy Olmsted: KIA In Iraq 1/3/2008, An American We All Should Miss

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- Maj. Andrew Olmsted was killed Thursday by small arms fire in Iraq. He left behind a posthumous blog post about service. And war. It is full of wisdom, and difficult to read without tears welling up. Brush them aside. The soldier wants us to hear what he says from the grave:

"But for those of you who knew me and feel this pain, I think it is a good thing to realize that this pain has been felt by thousands and thousands (probably millions actually) of other people all over the world. That is part of the cost of war, any war, no matter how justified. If everyone who feels this pain keeps that in mind the next time we have have decide whether war is a good idea, perhaps it will help us to make a more informed decision. Because it is pretty clear that the average American would not have supported the Iraq War had they known the cost going in. I am far to cynical to believe that any future debate about war will be any less vitriolic or emotional, but perhaps a few more people will realize just what those costs can be next time.''

That is just a small excerpt. Please take time to read all that he that he had to say. H/T Pho's Akron Pages. Andy's words remind me of Callimachus, who said "A good man never dies."

Bill Clinton On Hillary's Iraq Plan: Some U.S. Troops Must Remain As Peacekeepers

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- While campaigning for Sen. Hillary Clinton in Iowa, former president Bill Clinton said he believes the U.S. should end its military involvement in Iraq. He pledged that his spouse would pull most American troops from the country, but also favors leaving a "small number" behind to separate the Kurds and Turks in northern Iraq. The remaining U.S. force would be assigned peacekeeping duties, and Bill Clinton's comment seemed to open the door to some kind of long-term military presence on Iraqi soil during a Hillary Clinton presidency.

Bill Richardson sees Hillary Clinton flip-flopping on Iraq as the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses rapidly approach. Richardson contends she is trying to wiggle out of hawkish statements, and that she has no intention of ending U.S. involvement any time soon. Bill Clinton offered the "small number" description after Richardson's blast. The former president's words were captured by Kirk Klocke, news editor at the Charles City Press, a newspaper that serves the city of 7,800 in northern Iowa. He wrote that Bill Clinton made it clear Hillary would leave a military contingent on the ground in Iraq:

"However, he said if elected president, Sen. Clinton plans to keep some troops in Iraq to maintain peace. 'The presence of a small number of Americans there reduces the chance that they (the Kurds and Turks) will go to war with each other again.'"

Bill Clinton said he favored withdrawing most forces from Iraq.

"The longer we stay now, the longer we will delay the day when Sunni and the Shia will have to make their own agreement to hold their country together or not. As long as they think we're going to be there, they can just keep trying to negotiate for a better deal."

Hillary Clinton has talked about leaving what has been called a residual force of America troops in Iraq. Those comments made news around the world earlier this year. But it is not clear what she actually intended to do so if she reaches the White House. Her husband seems to have settled the issue -- some U.S. forces would remain, there would be no timetable for withdrawal, and the military mission would not be described as a permanent presence.

Mitt Romney's 'Brainwashing' Moment: Confused About Iraq Invasion

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- Republican Mitt Romney -- whose lead in Iowa appears to be evaporating as Mike Huckabee gains ground in the polls -- has made an odd pronouncement about the war in Iraq. While campaigning in a small Iowa community Wednesday, Romney said Illinois Democrat Barack Obama would have pulled U.S. troops out of Iraq if Obama had been president. But there were no U.S. troops in Iraq until the war started -- George Bush sent them in April 2003 based upon inaccurate reports Saddam Hussein's regime had vast stores of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. Obama would not have ordered the invasion.

What make Romney's reasoning seem totally confounding is that Obama has always opposed sending U.S. ground forces into Iraq. That opposition is a pillar of his campaign for the presidency. Thus, a President Obama would not have removed troops in 2003 or thereafter -- he would not have sent them in the first place.

Romney's comment and the Obama campaign's swift reaction is reported in the Des Moines Register. The Republican's words conjured up 1968, when Michigan Gov. George Romney (Mitt's dad) said on the presidential campaign trail that year he had been "brainwashed" about Vietnam. The comment was seen as showing he did not understand or comprehend the roots of the Southeast Asian war, and George Romney's campaign soon tanked. Mitt's presidential bid is stronger than his father's, but could be prone to the same kind of prattling as the Obama comment clearly reflects.

Here's what Mitt Romney said:

"We're fortunate we did not have Barack Obama as president. If he had been president, he'd have just pulled our troops out and al-Qaeda would have been a safe haven in Iraq."

Obama's spokesman Tommy Vincent's response:

"If Barack Obama were president, we never would have gone into Iraq in the first place. We would've gone after Osama bin Laden, finished the job in Afghanistan, and made America a lot safer than it is even after seven years of a divisive foreign policy that Mitt Romney apparently wants to continue."

Latest From Kucinich: I Will Ban U.S. Oil Companies From Iraq

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- The news comes via After Downing Street, the blog for an anti-war organization that wants to impeach President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. It quotes Cleveland Congressman Dennis Kucinich, D-10, pledging to introduce legislation that forbids U.S.-based oil companies from taking over Iraq's oilfields. Kucinich is a Democratic presidential candidate with scant support in the polls, but he is one of the loudest critics of the war.

"This Congress failed to prohibit oil companies from taking advantage of the U.S. invasion. I intend to close this major loophole by introducing legislation to prohibit U.S. oil companies from gaining financial interests or financial control of Iraq's oil resources."

Kucinich has protested Hunt Oil Company's deal with Iraq's Kurds. His statement said he sent a Sept. 18 letter to Secretary of State Rice "urging an immediate investigation into Hunt Oil Company's recent production sharing agreement for petroleum exploration with Kurdistan."

A Day That Shall Live In Infamy For Hillary? 5th Anniversary Of Iraq War Vote

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- The Republican National Committee is not going to let people forget that on Oct. 11 2002 the Democratic Party's leading presidential candidate voted to authorize the use of force against Iraq. New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton was certain five years ago "that a vote for this resolution best serves the security of our nation."

Now, of course, there is sharp debate over whether she got it right or flubbed when given an opportunity to challenge a foreign policy disaster in the making. At the time, the resolution was recognized as a measure allowing President George Bush to invade Iraq, a move that set the stage for a war that has grown increasingly unpopular.

The GOP even has a video of Hillary speaking in the Senate on that fateful day. If she wins the nomination, it is a scene that will be replayed endlessly, a scene that might have more impact on anti-war Democrats than those Republicans who believe President Bush was right.

Journalist Bob Woodward At Ohio University: I Blew It On Iraq War

ATHENS, Ohio -- The Washington Post's big gun and journalism guru Bob Woodward tells a crowd at Ohio University that he originally was a supporter and promoter of the Iraq War. He seems to think that was a mistake. He also is described by the the student newspaper saying he should have personally gone to Iraq to search for weapons of mass destruction before the invasion.

First up, Richard Heck in The Athens Messenger, who reports:

"Early in his speech, Woodward acknowledged that journalists sometimes make mistakes. He admitted that initially, he wrote stories and opinion pieces supportive of the war in Iraq, but has since realized that his viewpoints may have been in error."

Also:

"Woodward told the OU audience that various insiders in the current administration admitted to him that the reasons for the Iraq war were doubtful. As in the Nixon presidency, which conducted various practices in secret, Woodward hinted that the current administration is doing the same. In researching his books, Woodward said, several senior-level administrators in the White House would not confirm various reasons for the current administration's reasons for going to war."

Next, in the student newspaper, The Post, Woodward says he should have gone to Iraq with a team of reporters to hunt for the weapons of mass destruction that the Bush administration claimed were present.

"'Stakes are high, particularly in time of war. Accountability is the issue.' Even at 64-years-old, Woodward said he's still learning. He wishes he would have been 'more aggressive' in his investigation on Iraq and in retrospect would have led a team to the Middle East before the Iraq invasion to look for weapons of mass destruction.'"

And in Ohio University's JSchool Bloggers journalism school blog Woodward says he wakes up each morning worried about government secrecy.

"When you wake up in the morning, what is the first thing you worry about? I'll tell you what I wake up worrying about: the secrecy of government. I'm concerned about the difference between what a person says he is and what he really is."

He said:

"We need to shine a light when democracy is dying in the dark."

OH-02 GOP Primary: Phil Heimlich Wants Iraq Partitioned Into 3 States

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- Republican Phil Heimlich has moved to separate himself from President Bush on Iraq and says the the creation of "a united, stable Iraq may simply be impossible." Heimlich says he favors a plan to partition Iraq into Kurdish, Sunni and Shiite states to end ethnic and sectarian violence. The Ohio 2nd District congressional candidate has posted his views on his campaign Website, which appear when scrolling down the page. Heimlich is running against incumbent U.S. Rep. Jean Schmidt in the March primary.

His statement says:

"The President should immediately begin working with our allies and the Iraqi leaders to develop an approach to partition that has the maximum chance of success. That is the only way we can fulfill both our moral and military obligations brought about by this war.

"This will not be an easy task. Difficult issues need to be resolved. What level of central government needs to be maintained and how will this be done? How do we protect the Kurds from potential attack from the Turks? And how do we avoid having Iran become the dominating influence in the oil-rich Shiite area? these are serious questions that will require our best minds and our most dedicated diplomatic efforts to resolve. These are challenging tasks, but the alternatives require that we dedicate ourselves to their achievement."

President Bush has opposed efforts to discuss partition. On Sunday, the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad issued a public statement saying the administration opposes partition. It responded to a Sept. 27 non-binding resolution passed by the U.S. Senate and supported by Delaware Sen. Joe Biden, a Democratic presidential candidate. The Embassy warned that partition would lead to more bloodshed.

Available On The Bellwether: Full Text Of Petraeus Letter To Troops On War Progress

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- Army Gen. David E. Petraeus has written a two-page letter (PDF) to the troops in Iraq that is a tip-off to what he'll tell Congress when he formally reports next week. He says sectarian violence is "at considerably reduced levels from 8 months ago . . ."

Read the letter and decide for for yourself. But it seems clear Petraeus is going to testify the surge -- and other tactical changes --have finally produced a glimmer of positive results. Could that pose a problem for President Bush if Petraeus is correct and people start asking: Why were things bungled for so long? Where was the leadership in 2004, 2005, 2006? Why were we told things were going well when they obviously were not? Would the war and dying be over if the White House had recognized sooner the Pentagon and Central Command needed competent leaders? Petraeus stopped far short of telling his troops victory is just around the corner, nor did he say he saw a light at the end of the tunnel, the discredited Vietnam metaphor. Instead, he used a football analogy.

"We are, in short, a long way from the goal line, but we do have the ball and we are driving down the field."

He added:

"We have to contend with the relentless pace of operations, the crushing heat, and the emotions that we all experience during long deployments and tough combat. And we operate against a backdrop of limited Iraqi governmental capacity, institutions trying to rebuild, and various forms of corruption."

The Cost Of The Iraq War To Ohio: About $15.7 Billion And Counting

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- The National Priorities Project has built a meter that is constantly counting the financial cost of the War in Iraq. The meter runs non-stop, and a few moments ago pegged Ohio's share of expenses at $15,690,248,670. Cincinnati's share was closing in on $420 million; Dayton, $154 million; Toledo, $344 million; Youngstown, $67 million.

Other Ohio cities are on the meter, too. It is worth watching the meter rise. And while you were reading this, the numbers have climbed.

Fresh Rasmussen Poll: Democrats See Iraq As Vietnam, Republicans Don't

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- Pollster Scott Rasmussen has found a deep partisan divide exists over the Iraq-as-Vietnam theme. A vast majority of Republicans say there is no way to compare the two wars. Democrats, however, are struck by a sense of having heard it all before -- that the string of reports coming daily from U.S. military headquarters in Baghdad reads distressingly like it could have been scripted by the U.S. headquarters in Saigon during the 1960s and 1970s.

Rasmussen contacted 1,200 likely voters across the nation by telephone August 24-26. His polling began the day after President Bush raised the Vietnam echo in a speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars annual convention last week. Overall, 47% of Americans say Iraq is like Vietnam; 44% say not.

"Republicans, by a 61% to 29% comparison, say Iraq is not like Vietnam. Democrats, by a 59% to 33% margin, say they are similar. Forty-seven percent (47%) of voters say that our biggest mistake in Vietnam was getting involved in the first place. Forty-tow (42%) say the mistake was using the wrong strategy to accomplish the nation's goals. The numbers are strikingly similar for Iraq. Forty-nine percent *49%) say it was a mistake for the U.S. to get involved in the first place, while 41% say the wrong strategy was used."

A question: How many Americans alive today were actually around during the Vietnam era? That war ended in 1975 with a communist offensive that brought the fall of Saigon and the collapse of a U.S.-backed but remarkably ineffective South Vietnamese government, which struggled for years to gain popular support. American soldiers lost their lives in South Vietnam in places called Hamburger Hill and the Rockpile.

Here's what Phil Caputo, an author who served as a U.S. Marine officer in Vietnam, had to say about his escape from Saigon as it fell. The words are from Caputo's memoir, A Rumor Of War:

"My mind shot back a decade, to that day we had marched into Vietnam, swaggering, confident, and full of idealism. We had believed we were there for a high moral purpose. But somehow our idealism was lost, our morals corrupted and the purpose forgotten. . .

"There was some applause as the aircraft settled on the flight deck and as we filed out, a marine slapped me on the back and said, 'Welcome home. Bet you're glad to be out of there.' I was, of course. I asked him which outfit he was from. 'Ninth MEB,' he answered. The 9th Expeditionary Brigade, the same unit with which I had landed at Danang. But the men who belonged to it now seemed a good deal more cynical than we who had belonged to it ten years before. The marine looked at the faint blue line marking the Vietnamese coast and said, 'Well, that's one country we won't have to give billions of dollars to anymore.'

The next day -- April 30, 1975 -- that war officially ended.

New Iraq National Intelligence Estimate: Full Text Available Here

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- A new 10-page report by the National Intelligence Council foresees the prospects for a stable government in Iraq becoming "more precarious" over the next 6 to 12 months. The complete report is available at this government link (PDF). The report says there has been some improvement in the security situation, but that the Iraqi government remains a question.

"The IC assesses that the Iraqi Government will become more precarious over the next six to 12 months because of criticism by other members of the major Shia coalition (the Unified Iraqi Alliance, UIA), Grand Ayatollah Sistani and other Sunni and Kurdish parties. Divisions between Maliki and the Sadrists have increased, and Shia factions have explored coalitions aimed at constraining Maliki.

"The strains of the security situation and absence of key leaders have stalled internal political debates, slowed national decision making, and increased Maliki's vulnerability to alternative coalitions."

Read the full report. Decide for yourself what it means. The White House view of the intelligence estimate is here. Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has also released a statement about the report. The White House sees progress; the Democrats don't agree.

Top GOP Prez Candidates Skip VFW Convention: Hillary, Obama, McCain And Thompson Salute The Vets

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- The Democratic National Committee accused Republican Mitt Romney of snubbing the nation's wartime veterans for skipping the VFW's annual convention in Kansas City this week. Citing a conflict, Romney turned down an invitation to speak. The DNC took potshots at Romney as weak on veterans' issues and said he idiotically had equated military duty in Iraq to working as a flunky on his campaign staff. In other words, he was both AWOL and insulting to those who wore the uniform of their country. Meanwhile, the two leading Democratic presidential candiates, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, were both present and accounted for.

The VFW's announcement of its invitations to the presidential candidates said it wanted to hear them discuss their plans for prosecuting the war on terrorism, plus their intentions for caring for those who served when called to defend the nation. VFW Commander-in-Chief Gary Kurplus -- a Vietnam combat vet --said:

"Poets and scientists and scholars help to define a great society, but our nation was created and continues to exist only through the service and selfless sacrifice of our citizens who don the uniform."

Sen. Hillary Clinton spoke Monday and received what some accounts described as applause in a half-empty hall. The New York Democrat emphasized health care for vets, and said it was time to bring U.S. forces home from Iraq. Sen. John McCain, the only presidential candidate who has actually served during wartime, acknowledged the Iraq War was poorly managed, but warned that withdrawal would only strengthen Al Qaeda. The Arizona Republican has favored adding troops to Iraq. He was a Navy pilot who spent years in a North Vietnamese prison after being shot down during the Vietnam War. McCain was tortured.

Illinois Sen. Barack Obama addresses the VFW Tuesday, as will former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson, who is not a presidential candidate but is expected to enter the GOP primaries within weeks. The VFW invited the leading candidates from both parties. Obama and Clinton accepted. Rudy Giuliani and Romney begged off citing prior commitments -- which made it look like the GOPers blew off the vets during a war.

Here's a snippet about McCain's speech, and there is this news brief about Hillary's appearance, which did not go badly despite her stance that the troops must come home quickly. The VFW's leadership has supported Bush's surge.

National Dem TV Ad Coming Monday: Takes On Bush Over War

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- Be among the first to catch the new ad on YouTUBE, where it has just been posted by the Democratic National Committee and House and Senate Democrats. When The Bellwether got the link a few moments ago, there were fewer than 130 looks. The ad will be running for a month on cable TV outlets and its theme is that President Bush hasn't been listening to the American people.

The ad is intended to help set in motion the Democrats' month of action on Iraq -- which is designed to pressure Republicans in their home districts to abandon or alter support for the president on the war. The ad says the Dems have been "taking on George Bush to end a war gone wrong." It also outlines other Congressional action the new Democratic majorities have taken this year, including raising the minimum wage and voting to expand the Children's Health Insurance Program.

DNC Chairman Howard Dean described the purpose of the ad campaign as to take aim at Bush and portray him as a failure in office.

"The American people want a new direction in Iraq, yet President Bush and his Republican allies are stubbornly supporting a policy that is making America less safe. Time and again, Democrats have passed legislation to end Bush's war of choice in Iraq but Republicans refuse to change course. Democrats will continue to hold them accountable, but one thing is clear -- Democrats have accomplished more for the America people in the past six months than Republicans accomplished in six years."

Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Chris Van Hollen said the Dems during August are "going district by district to urge Republicans to stop obstructing progress and work with us to end the war in Iraq. Republicans who continue to vote lock step with President Bush's failed policies will be held accountable."

OH-02: Last Year Mean Jean Schmidt Predicted Troops Would Be Coming Home

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- The Republican congresswoman's crystal ball must have been malfunctioning in January 2006 -- because she said then things were so well on track in Iraq that American troops would soon begin returning to the U.S. "on a permanent fashion."

Schmidt -- incorrectly -- viewed events on the ground in such a positive manner that soldiers and Marines could be withdrawn starting last summer. Instead, we wound up with a surge this year adding, rather than subtracting, combat forces. The Ohio legislator had just spent 15 hours on a trip to Baghdad, and her analysis was flat-out wrong. Today, Schmidt looks like a simpleton.

Schmidt's comments appeared in a Jan. 15, 2006 Cincinnati Enquirer story, a story that is no longer available online. The Bellwether retrieved the article by looking up clippings. It was written by Malia Rulon, and a digital version is in a database at the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County called NewsBank. Unfortunately, the database is not linkable.

Here are a few of the pertinent paragraphs:

"WASHINGTON -- Rep. Jean Schmidt said Saturday, after a 15-hour trip to Baghdad, that progress is being made in training Iraqi troops and the size of the U.S. force in the country probably could be reduced later this year.

"Schmidt, who spoke by phone from a U.S. base in Kuwait, said the bipartisan congressional delegation she was traveling with met Friday with Gen. George W. Casey Jr., commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, and soldiers serving on the ground.

"I can assure you that progress is being made," said Schmidt, R-Miami Township. "If they keep on the track that they are on now, then by summer we should see some more of our troops coming home on a permanent fashion."

Schmidt, of course, was following the White House line at the time. President Bush planned to withdraw soldiers to levels below the 138,000 in country before the Iraqi elections.

Schmidt said she viewed Iraq as stabilizing. Rulon reported the OH-02 congresswoman "saw signs that Iraq is starting to become westernized: cell phones, satellite dishes, a Starbucks coffee shop and even a Century 21 real-estate sign."

Surprisingly, nobody who is running for her job in the 2008 primaries is pressing Schmidt much about how her analysis was so off -- the troops are not, and did not, come home "on a permanent fashion." Democrat Vic Wulsin is running for renomination in Ohio's 2nd Congressional District and -- in this blog post she has featured on her website since last week (scan down the page) -- didn't point out Schmidt's over-optimistic statement about bringing the troops home. Republican Phil Heimlich seems to have been silent on the war. Does he back the president or favor some other course? Heimlich hasn't tipped his hand.

Ohioans Who Gave Their Lives: All Served The Nation Post 9/11

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- The names and faces are memorialized online, and by typing the word Ohio in the hometown line you can see them all. Somebody once wrote that soldiers at war "learn of death and maiming when most are concerned with marriage and mortgages." The list presents the reality of war. The call. The bravery. The sacrifice. The loss.

Who remembers now the early days after the World Trade Center's fall into heaps of rubble, when Americans in uniform were first sent to The Philippines? But the faces of those who died in 2001 -- long before Iraq -- begin the list. Then we took the news quietly. It was just the beginning.

H/T to Bill Callahan, who has memorialized the Cleveland area's fatalities. He made me think about the things men do in war, and the things war does to us. And how little we think about it at all, how we barely dare to think. As the poet Wilfred Owen put it:

"Let the boy try along this bayonet blade
How cold steel is, and keen with the hunger of blood . . .

Ohio's U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan And American Catholic Bishops: Mapping Anti-Iraq War Strategy

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- The U.S. bishops will meet with a group of Catholic House Democrats to map plans for a strategy that could force the Bush Administration to end the Iraq War. The church leaders want U.S. forces to leave Iraq "as quickly as possible." They accepted an invitation to meet with the House Democrats that was extended by U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Youngstown.

The bishops have long questioned the moral basis for the war, and said today that the nation needs moral courage to change course.

"The current situation in Iraq is unacceptable and unsustainable, as is the policy and political stalemate among decision makers in Washington. Our conference hopes to work with the Congress and the Administration to forge bipartisan policies on ways to bring about a responsible transition and an end to the war.

"Prior to the war when too few members of either party in Congress opposed authorizing the use of force, our Conference of bishops, in solidarity with Pope John Paul II, repeatedly raised grave moral questions about military intervention in Iraq and the unpredictable and uncontrollable negative consequences of an invasion and occupation. Sadly many of the tragic consequences we and others had feared have come to pass."

No date for the meeting has been set. The Rev. Thomas G. Wenski, Bishop of Orlando, Fla., signed the letter accepting Ryan's invitation, which was dated July 17. It was made public this afternoon by church officials. Wenski is chairman of the committee on international policy of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Scaife's Far Right Newspaper: Bush Is 'Blathering' And Maybe Nuts

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- Richard Mellon Scaife, the Pittsburgh fat cat who has dipped into a huge family fortune to finance right wing causes over the decades, owns a newspaper that has openly questioned President Bush's mental stability.

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review editorial said Bush seemed to be spouting nonsense at his news conference last when he vowed to hold steady in Iraq, a vow that Scaife's publication dismissed as disconnected from reality because "there is no shame in leaving in Iraq. For it will not be, in any way, an exercise in tail-tucking and running."

Scaife is often described as a billionaire. He funded investigations of Democratic President Bill Clinton, and helped underwrite Newt Gingrich's GoPac.

Now his newspaper agrees with Democratic U.S. Rep. John Murtha, who has called for the withdrawal of U.S. troops. Last year, OH-02 U.S. Rep. Jean Schmidt accused Murtha -- a decorated Marine who served in the Vietnam War -- of promoting cowardice when she made her notorious maiden speech on the House floor. But Murtha has won a powerful and influential friend in Republican places.