Daily Op/Ed Wrap-up

Steven Hill: Europe leaves the U.S. behind

More inclusive democratic institutions create superior democracies

"Why are Europeans outpacing Americans on so many social, political and economic fronts? The answers are complex but basically they boil down to the fact that, for the last 60 years in the post-WWII period, Europeans have been incubating markedly different "fulcrum institutions" -- the key institutions and practices on which everything else pivots. In particular, three fulcrum institutions form the foundation for the rest -- the political, economic, and media institutions. These three play an Archidemean role in deciding ever-evolving policies that affect people's lives, on matters ranging from health care, education, housing, transportation, the environment and taxes to the energy regime, corporate structure, immigration, foreign policy and national security..."

Tamim Ansary: 9/11: What Could Have Been

"The day after the Taliban fled Kabul, the United States was poised to make enormous headway toward a new era of peace and progress. At that historical moment, as a victim of the 9/11 attacks, America enjoyed unprecedented goodwill around the world, even among the uncommitted masses in the Muslim world. Had the United States focused all its efforts at that moment on restoring Afghanistan to the course the Soviet invasion interrupted 23 years earlier--a course pointed toward moderation, secular modernity and development, all within an Afghan cultural context--it would have weakened the Jihadist movement dramatically by stripping away its most powerful arguments and examples..."

Detroit Free Press: No Apology-On prison abuses, Bush's statements fall short

"Apparently being George W. Bush means not having to say you're sorry..."

Joyce Marcel: The Grin that Destroys the World

"But how do we accept the photographic reality of ourselves as revealed in those pictures from Abu Ghraib prison? That we demonized these people? That we tortured them? That we humiliated them? That we stripped them of their humanity, sexually abused them, shamed them in the eyes of their God and shamed ourselves in the eyes of the world?

For the millions in the Arab world who already believe that women should have no civil rights, what could be more devastating, than that grinning female soldier? She revels in her ultimate power over these men. Instead of bringing the ideals of democracy - with its lovely strands of feminism - to the Arab world, we've given them a million years of reasons to keep women in burqas and maybe even to start binding their feet..."

Robert Fisk: 'Good Guys' Should be Ashamed

"That man's fate -- and the documentary evidence proving that he was murdered -- was first revealed by The Independent on Sunday in January. Didn't the CIA boys at Abu Ghraib know that Ivan "Chip" Frederick and Lynddie England, two of the American soldiers in the photographs published last week, were obscenely humiliating their prisoners?

Of course they did. The last time I saw Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, commander of the 800th Military Police Brigade in Iraq, she told me she had visited Camp X-Ray in Guantanamo and found nothing wrong with it. I should have guessed then that something had gone terribly wrong in Iraq..."

Debra J. Saunders: Prisoners of war

"But what kind of country would America be if our government did nothing to punish criminal behavior by U.S. troops sent to do good abroad? Army Chief of Staff George Casey called the prison episodes a sign of "a complete breakdown of discipline." But the ritual humiliation of prisoners -- in the absence of any intelligence imperative, but just for the kick of hurting others -- also shows a breakdown of decency, and an absolute erosion of the social pact..."

Robert L. Bastian Jr.: Exporting America's Shame

"But again, we are deluding ourselves. The hard fact is that the U.S. did install in Iraq an American-style approach to prison management. Like the U.S. prison system, it is underfunded and inadequately supervised, lacks civilian oversight and accountability and is secretive and tolerant of inmate abuse until evidence of mistreatment is pushed into the public light. That, regrettably, is the American model..."

Baltimore Sun: Losing it, in science

"Signs of America's decline show up in prizes for scientific achievement and in papers published by professional journals. Increasingly, these distinctions are going to researchers from elsewhere. The New York Times reported this week that Asia is boosting its number of patents, even as American numbers are dropping. Similarly, Europe is outpacing the United States at awarding doctorates for science and engineering..."

Ellen G. Rafshoon: He's the best defender Kerry will never have

"It is significant that more than a decade before anyone had any inkling that Kerry would run for U.S. president, Puller singled him out for praise in his autobiography. "One articulate young combat veteran named John Kerry delivered a moving address before a special session of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that, for me, summed up the sense of betrayal and the disillusionment I felt toward the administration and the leadership that had directed the course of the war from the safety of its Washington power base," Puller wrote..."