Ohio gets hammered

Just last week from Iraq, Marine Lance Cpl. Edward Schroeder e-mailed his parents in Cleveland. Two members of his unit had been killed.

"He wanted to let us know as fast as he could that he was OK, and that we didn't worry," said his mother, Rosemary Palmer. "We worried all the time."

On Wednesday they received the news they dreaded. Edward had been killed. He was 23.

He was among 20 Marines from the same unit based in Ohio killed this week in an offensive in Iraq.

This state voted for this war. Since they've started to get hammered, the flagwavers aren't raising those flags so high. Some of them actually stooped to the level of voting for an anti-war candidate in Paul Hackert. These deaths will no doubt motivate more people against the war. Still, some who've lost will continue to blindly follow the call to patriotism.

RIP, victims of an unjust war.