Schmidt made the Iraq War an issue in the race. She declared on WCET-TV's "Forum" that "9/11 was a wakeup call. We lost our innocence" and praised the Bush foreign policy. "The foundation of democracy that has been planted in Afghanistan and Iraq", she said, has inspired reforms in Saudi Arabia, Syria, Lebanon and elsewhere. At the Chatfield College debate on July 7, she said of Iraq and Saddam Hussein "We have toppled a terrorist regime, a terrorist madman who now sits in a prison cell. This country has gone to the ballot box and made its decision to become a democratic regime."