Ohio State took a giant step toward polishing its tarnished image Monday when it hired Urban Meyer as its next football coach. …

The team has been reeling since it was discovered that former coach Jim Tressel knew that some of his players received cash and free or discounted tattoos from a man who was the subject of a federal drug-trafficking investigation.

Meyer brings solid credentials to his new job. … His career has included head coaching jobs at Bowling Green, Utah and Florida. Meyer’s teams have a combined record of 104-23 and a record of 7-1 in bowl games. …

That track record means there is reason for optimism. There are, unfortunately, some pending questions and hurdles that seem to lie directly ahead.

Ohio State is still facing NCAA sanctions in addition to its self-imposed two years of NCAA probation and the loss of five scholarships during the next three years. …

Then there are legitimate questions about his health and a desire to spend more time with his family that led him to walk away from the Florida job twice. …

From that standpoint, it seems that Meyer’s six-year contract — worth $4.4 million a year before bonuses and incentives — could be viewed as a bit of a risk ….

That is a valid argument, but it is, we are certain, a risk worth taking. That said, we join Buckeye fans around the world in welcoming Meyer and are sure his leadership will take Ohio State back to the top of the college football world.

Steubenville Herald Star

 

Now is time to focus

on end of Afghan war

What a tragedy. Last weekend, NATO helicopter attacks against suspected insurgents in Pakistan inadvertently killed 28 troops of the Pakistani military. Although the two nations’ relations are strained, Pakistan is a key ally in America’s military operations in both Afghanistan and Pakistan itself.

Pakistani Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, a military spokesman, said NATO expressions of regret were not enough. … He lamented that the new deaths bring to 72 the number of Pakistani troops killed, with 250 wounded, in such cross-border attacks in the past three years.

The situation is extremely difficult, said Malou Innocent, a foreign policy analyst at the libertarian Cato Institute who recently returned from a fact-finding mission to Afghanistan. “The U.S.-Pakistani relationship is so complicated,” she said. “It was thrown into disarray earlier when U.S. troops killed Osama bin Laden,” the terrorist mastermind behind 9/11. Pakistani authorities remain upset they were not notified before a Navy SEAL team helicoptered deep into Pakistan to kill the al-Qaida leader in May. …

Ever since the 9/11 attacks more than 10 years ago, we have favored using U.S. elite troops to go after bin Laden and other al-Qaida members. But we have opposed the sort of “nation building” that ends up being a quagmire. The Afghan war now, at 10 years old, is the longest in America’s history, yet there’s still no exit strategy.

Moreover, it doesn’t make sense to strain relations even more with Pakistan, long a key ally in the region — despite many problems — and a nuclear power in its own right.

With U.S. troops finally heading out of Iraq, it’s also time to wind down the war in Afghanistan.

The Lima News