The hearts and minds of Ohio: Marines' deaths, recent election linked
Steve Hammons
October 31, 2005
In early August of this year, the deaths of a large number Ohio Marine reservists in Iraq immediately followed a special election in southern Ohio for a vacated seat in Congress. These events are related.
The congressional district covers a region from Cincinnati east through southern Ohio along the Ohio River.
It is a down-to-earth region, conservative in some ways, yet the people there are not the "hicks" and "hillbillies" some might assume.
One of the candidates running for the congressional seat was a former Marine reserve major who had recently served several months in Iraq commanding a civil affairs unit.
Paul Hackett, an attorney who lives in Cincinnati, said during the campaign that he had opposed the Iraq war, yet felt it was his duty to volunteer to serve there.
Hackett is now running for the U.S. Senate from Ohio.
In the congressional race in August, Hackett, running as a moderate-conservative Democrat who opposes gun control, gained attention by referring to President Bush as a "chicken hawk" for avoiding combat service in Vietnam during that war.
He also said Bush made "stupid" remarks such as "bring it on," challenging insurgents in Iraq to attack U.S. forces there.
Hackett reportedly bluntly stated about Bush, "I've said I don't like the S.O.B."
Hackett's opponent, Jean Schmidt, strongly supported Bush and the Iraq war.
Hackett lost by about 3,500 votes, getting about 48 percent of the vote in a district that routinely elected the previous Republican congressman there by about 70 percent.
The Ohio Marines killed came from northern, central and southern Ohio. The most recently killed Marines followed the recent deaths of others from the same unit.
If their deaths would have occurred before that election, would the outcome of the election have changed?
Many southern Ohioans apparently had already had a change of heart about the Iraq war and the ongoing casualties there.
This seemed to be reflected in the numbers of those that voted for Hackett.
If the election were held today, would the outcome be different? How many southern Ohioans wish they could take back their vote for Schmidt and vote for Hackett?
Maybe someone will do a poll to find out.
But maybe it was a blessing in disguise for Hackett and the people that support him. His run for the Senate may result in a more significant position for him than the House seat would have been.
Americans' views of the Iraq war do not seem to be a matter of Republican and Democrat anymore.
Prominent Republicans have been highly critical of the war. And of course, many Democrats voted to authorize it.
Traditional conservative Patrick Buchanan has been a beacon of light in pointing out the folly of the Iraq war.
Many other Republican-leaning military officers and others have voiced similar perspectives.
There is much American blood on the hands of Democrats and Republicans alike.
The father of one of the dead Ohio Marines, Paul Schroeder, wrote shortly after his son's death, "I hold the Bush administration responsible, from the president through the secretaries of state and defense and all those who have had a hand in starting this war. I also hold every Democrat in Congress who voted to authorize this misadventure as accomplices."
He wrote that his son, "died doing his duty. So have some 1,800 other Americans. To honor him, I no longer can sit still, just keeping quiet and being politically correct."
Maybe in the back of his mind, Schroeder was thinking about reports of slanted and falsified intelligence to justify the Iraq war.
Maybe he and others are thinking more about the role Iraq?s oil played in the war. Or, maybe the influence "neocons" who so wanted to spend the lives and blood of American troops by invading Iraq.
Maybe Ohioans are thinking about how Halliburton and others have made billions from the war.
And how politicians and political appointees who never served in combat, avoided the Vietnam war or never served in the military at all were so determined to send the loved ones of Ohioans to Iraq to be killed or injured for life.
And now, Ohioans are learning about the reluctance of intelligence professionals in the CIA who didn?t buy the reasons for going to war in Iraq.
Ohioans were in the center of the storm during the last presidential election, and they are in the center of the storm again.
But this time it is not so much about party affiliation or the personalities and histories of the presidential candidates.
It is bigger than that. It is deeper than that.
It is about sending our loved ones to their deaths and to terrible injuries. It is about Americans with American blood on their hands.
At least Schroeder and the other families don't need to make the decision about whether to terminate life-support on their brain-damaged loved one lying comatose at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, as many families have had to do.
They don't have to see their loved ones without legs, arms, parts of their bodies and faces blown away, with terrible burns or with permanent brain damage, or all of the above.
Ohioans must search their minds, hearts and spirits. Difficult moral decisions must be made by them, and by us all.
And there will be accountability and justice for what has been done. This, too, will require moral courage and truth.
AUTHOR NOTE TO READERS: Please visit my Joint Recon Study Group blog.
The congressional district covers a region from Cincinnati east through southern Ohio along the Ohio River.
It is a down-to-earth region, conservative in some ways, yet the people there are not the "hicks" and "hillbillies" some might assume.
One of the candidates running for the congressional seat was a former Marine reserve major who had recently served several months in Iraq commanding a civil affairs unit.
Paul Hackett, an attorney who lives in Cincinnati, said during the campaign that he had opposed the Iraq war, yet felt it was his duty to volunteer to serve there.
Hackett is now running for the U.S. Senate from Ohio.
In the congressional race in August, Hackett, running as a moderate-conservative Democrat who opposes gun control, gained attention by referring to President Bush as a "chicken hawk" for avoiding combat service in Vietnam during that war.
He also said Bush made "stupid" remarks such as "bring it on," challenging insurgents in Iraq to attack U.S. forces there.
Hackett reportedly bluntly stated about Bush, "I've said I don't like the S.O.B."
Hackett's opponent, Jean Schmidt, strongly supported Bush and the Iraq war.
Hackett lost by about 3,500 votes, getting about 48 percent of the vote in a district that routinely elected the previous Republican congressman there by about 70 percent.
The Ohio Marines killed came from northern, central and southern Ohio. The most recently killed Marines followed the recent deaths of others from the same unit.
If their deaths would have occurred before that election, would the outcome of the election have changed?
Many southern Ohioans apparently had already had a change of heart about the Iraq war and the ongoing casualties there.
This seemed to be reflected in the numbers of those that voted for Hackett.
If the election were held today, would the outcome be different? How many southern Ohioans wish they could take back their vote for Schmidt and vote for Hackett?
Maybe someone will do a poll to find out.
But maybe it was a blessing in disguise for Hackett and the people that support him. His run for the Senate may result in a more significant position for him than the House seat would have been.
Americans' views of the Iraq war do not seem to be a matter of Republican and Democrat anymore.
Prominent Republicans have been highly critical of the war. And of course, many Democrats voted to authorize it.
Traditional conservative Patrick Buchanan has been a beacon of light in pointing out the folly of the Iraq war.
Many other Republican-leaning military officers and others have voiced similar perspectives.
There is much American blood on the hands of Democrats and Republicans alike.
The father of one of the dead Ohio Marines, Paul Schroeder, wrote shortly after his son's death, "I hold the Bush administration responsible, from the president through the secretaries of state and defense and all those who have had a hand in starting this war. I also hold every Democrat in Congress who voted to authorize this misadventure as accomplices."
He wrote that his son, "died doing his duty. So have some 1,800 other Americans. To honor him, I no longer can sit still, just keeping quiet and being politically correct."
Maybe in the back of his mind, Schroeder was thinking about reports of slanted and falsified intelligence to justify the Iraq war.
Maybe he and others are thinking more about the role Iraq?s oil played in the war. Or, maybe the influence "neocons" who so wanted to spend the lives and blood of American troops by invading Iraq.
Maybe Ohioans are thinking about how Halliburton and others have made billions from the war.
And how politicians and political appointees who never served in combat, avoided the Vietnam war or never served in the military at all were so determined to send the loved ones of Ohioans to Iraq to be killed or injured for life.
And now, Ohioans are learning about the reluctance of intelligence professionals in the CIA who didn?t buy the reasons for going to war in Iraq.
Ohioans were in the center of the storm during the last presidential election, and they are in the center of the storm again.
But this time it is not so much about party affiliation or the personalities and histories of the presidential candidates.
It is bigger than that. It is deeper than that.
It is about sending our loved ones to their deaths and to terrible injuries. It is about Americans with American blood on their hands.
At least Schroeder and the other families don't need to make the decision about whether to terminate life-support on their brain-damaged loved one lying comatose at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, as many families have had to do.
They don't have to see their loved ones without legs, arms, parts of their bodies and faces blown away, with terrible burns or with permanent brain damage, or all of the above.
Ohioans must search their minds, hearts and spirits. Difficult moral decisions must be made by them, and by us all.
And there will be accountability and justice for what has been done. This, too, will require moral courage and truth.
AUTHOR NOTE TO READERS: Please visit my Joint Recon Study Group blog.
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