Daily Op/Ed Wrap-up

Paul Krugman: Battlefield of Dreams

"Much has been written about the damage done by foreign policy ideologues who ignored the realities of Iraq, imagining that they could use the country to prove the truth of their military and political doctrines. Less has been said about how dreams of making Iraq a showpiece for free trade, supply-side tax policy and privatization - dreams that were equally oblivious to the country's realities - undermined the chances for a successful transition to democracy...."

Robert Scheer: When We're the Evildoers in Iraq

"Recall that a key excuse for the U.S. invasion was to ensure the safety of Iraqi scientists and others in the know so that they might feel free to reveal the location of weapons of mass destruction or evidence of Saddam Hussein's potential ties to Al Qaeda. Shockingly, some of those scientists are now in coalition prisons, even though the weapons clearly don't exist.

In this context, of course, it makes sense that U.S. interrogators would feel enormous pressure to use any means necessary to verify the absurd claims made so aggressively by the president and his Cabinet before the war. Far from the jurisdiction of the U.S. legal system, they apparently felt quite free to approve techniques clearly banned by war crimes statutes..."

Juan Cole: Battle of the Photographs

"Even high Bush administration officials cannot seem to remember how many dead U.S. soldiers there have been at any one time as a result of the war. In congressional testimony on April 29, Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz said he thought there had been "approximately 500" troops killed since the beginning of the war, of which "350" were combat deaths. In fact, as of that day 724 US troops had died in Iraq, of which 522 were combat deaths. His office later said that he "misspoke." But this error is instructive of the way in which the hawks in Washington have hidden the costs of their Iraq adventure from the public so assiduously that they have even begun hiding it from themselves...."

John Nichols: McCain knows the truth about Feingold

"Unfortunately, not all Republicans earn the "thinking" modifier. Last month, one of Feingold's Republican challengers in Wisconsin, millionaire auto dealer Russ Darrow, suggested that when the state's junior senator voted against the much-condemned Patriot Act, he acted in a manner that was somehow un-American and that Feingold had not thought through the legal constitutional issues that were at stake. It was an absurd statement that revealed Darrow's ignorance with regard to the man he seeks to challenge..."

Robert Gelfand: 25 Ways to Distort the Truth

"...What is amusing about this ad is the underlying attitude that any criticism of the president is now somehow unacceptable. It's also amusing that the Bush campaign couldn't bring itself to allow the viewer to hear Kerry speak the job loss number. Couldn't they find any better Kerry clip to use in this tawdry attempt at vilification?"

Ruth Rosen: 'Merchant of Shame'

"The reasons for these practices, according to Jessica Grant, an attorney with the San Francisco firm that represents the workers, is that Wal-Mart habitually understaffs its stores. Workers must skip breaks and work unpaid overtime or risk getting fired. Grant also told me that Wal-Mart has recently asked workers to sign waivers for meal breaks. When the case goes to trial, the corporation will then argue that workers didn't really want any time to eat...."