Daily Op/Eds Wrap-up

Paul Krugman: In Front of Your Nose

"Others say we should seek more support from other countries. There may once have been a time - say, last summer - when the U.S. could have struck a deal: by ceding a lot of authority to the U.N., we might have been able to persuade countries with large armies, like India, to contribute large numbers of peacekeeping troops. But it's hard to imagine that anyone will now send significant forces into the Iraqi cauldron..."

John Nichols: Too bad president needs a minder

"In other words, in the unlikely event that Bush or Cheney might let a snippet of truth slip out, the elaborate White House spin machine will be able to take advantage of the deliberately vague record to "clarify" the statement. The absence of a taped record also allows the administration to avoid the embarrassment of having to explain why, when the commander-in-chief is asked questions, the vice president answers..."

Arianna Huffington: The 9/12 Effect

"It's a puzzling paradox: Recent polls show that voters are more worried that we are losing the war on terror, more convinced that we're about to be attacked, and more certain that the invasion of Iraq has put America at greater risk from terrorists. And yet, these same voters overwhelmingly believe that President Bush will do a better job of protecting them from terrorists than John Kerry.

Isn't that like believing that the embezzler who just ran off with your life savings is the perfect guy to manage your finances?..."

Senator Robert C Byrd: Mission Not Accomplished

"How long will America continue to pay the price in blood and treasure of this President's war? How long must the best of our nation's military men and women be taken from their homes to fight this unnecessary war in Iraq? How long must our National Guardsmen be taken from their communities to fight and die in the hot sands in Iraq? How long must the fathers and mothers see their sons and daughters die in a far away land because of President Bush's doctrine of preemptive attack? How long must little children across our land go to sleep at night crying for a daddy or mother far away who may never come home?..."

Minneapolis Star-Tribune: War on terror/Iraq is hurting, not helping

"President Bush continues to define the war in Iraq as an essential piece of the struggle against terrorism, a war that is making America and the world safer. Americans continue to believe him. A new poll from the University of Maryland reports that 57 percent of Americans believe that Saddam Hussein gave substantial support to Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaida; 45 percent said "clear evidence" has been found to prove that support. An equal number, 45 percent, said Saddam had weapons of mass destruction shortly before the United States invaded Iraq; 22 percent say he had a "major program for developing them."

Get a grip, folks: There is not one shred of credible evidence that supports any of those views. None. There is much evidence that those views are wrong..."

H.D.S. Greenway: The making of a quagmire

"I have another memory that haunts me more than any comparison with Vietnam. Sitting on a hillside with an Israeli artillery company 22 years ago, I watched the shelling of Beirut. Smoke and dust rose from the city as if it were a rug being beaten. The soldiers spoke of how the Shia of Lebanon had welcomed them when they invaded. Israel had great hopes of transforming Lebanon into an ally, and Israel's army could not be defeated in open battle. But 18 years later the Israelis left Lebanon, harassed to the last by those same Shia whom the Israelis had thought they had liberated..."

Daniel Schorr: Why hide flag-draped coffins?

"Considering that no individual identification is visible in the pictures, it is hard to understand the justification for clamping the secrecy lid on the solemn procession of flag-draped coffins being carried off the cargo planes. I cannot avoid the suspicion that President Bush - who has yet to attend a funeral service for any of the honored dead that he sent to war - has no interest in calling attention to the mounting number of casualties in a battle that was far from over last May 1, when the president declared "major combat operations" in Iraq had ended..."

Gregory Palast: Vanishing Votes

"First, the purges. In the months leading up to the November 2000 presidential election, Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris, in coordination with Governor Jeb Bush, ordered local election supervisors to purge 57,700 voters from the registries, supposedly ex-cons not allowed to vote in Florida. At least 90.2 percent of those on this "scrub" list, targeted to lose their civil rights, are innocent. Notably, more than half--about 54 percent--are black or Hispanic. You can argue all night about the number ultimately purged, but there's no argument that this electoral racial pogrom ordered by Jeb Bush's operatives gave the White House to his older brother..."

Bill Berkowitz: The Military's Mounting Mental Health Problems

"At a time when the Bush Administration seems intent on shutting down veterans centers and closing down VA hospitals, what will happen to traumatized soldiers when they return to the states?..."

Randolph T. Holhut: Lifting the shroud of secrecy on Bush's War

"President George W. Bush didn't have a problem with using a photograph of a flag-draped body bag being carried from the ruins of the World Trade Center in New York City for his first commercial of the campaign season.

Heroic sacrifice is fine if it helps the president's campaign, but pictures of flag-draped coffins returning from Iraq and Afghanistan must not be seen. Likewise for the thousands of wounded soldiers who are flown back to the U.S. under cover of darkness. No one must see the human cost that's being paid for the folly of the Bush administration..."