Independent Online Edition > Americas — Few, if any US outlets are going to carry this. This is going to “reverberate” nowhere!
Walter Cronkite, the former network news anchor they called “the most trusted man in America”, has added his voice to those calling for the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, echoing an appeal he made in 1968 to President Lyndon Johnson to cut his losses in Vietnam.
It has been 25 years since Mr Cronkite, now 89, hard of hearing and slow of gait, has presided over the nightly news bulletins for CBS, but he is still employed by the network and his status as an affable and avuncular national sage is intact. So his comments, made at a gathering of television critics in California, will reverberate.
Sad but true, Walter Cronkite is a little late in his pronouncement. There are enough people elsewhere, respectable people, that have already added their voices to the issue. His is only one more voice in the chorus.
But his legacy will go on.
Yawn? Not here. I’m glad he said it. Sure it would have had more impact had he said it sooner (actually, I think he did, but I digress….).
The more prominent people from “middle america” who speak out against this war, the better off everyone is.
And maybe, just maybe we’ll get out sooner rather than later.
The whole has been such a waste and should have never began.
There are a lot of suckers out there, for sure.
i wish someone would propose a decent exit strategy. Pull out now, years of civil war with Iran picking up the pieces creating the worse possible scenario. The UN wants none of this, they’ll provide a token force at best and pull out when things heat up. Occupations are hard to walk away from. Heck, look at the bases still in Germany and the Japanese Islands. Iran will have a nuclear weapon because because of spent political capital on this mess.
This is going to “reverberate” nowhere!
Agreed. Outside of retirement home dining rooms, and VFW halls, this will not get much “play”.
It has been 25 years since Mr Cronkite,…
In other words, just a few years before the children were born who are currently serving in Iraq [assuming 19 – 21 year-olds].
He is a bit late – or just in time to denounce the Iran war.
Oil.
Such a short simple three letter word, but that’s what this is all about. Bringing democracy to the region is a grand goal and we will not know for many years; but we (the US) need Oil.
China needs oil.
The rest of the world needs oil.
There’s very little oil left; especially when factoring in the increasing rate of consumptation.
Without OIL – this country of ours dies.
We run out of food.
Our Economy dies.
We die as a nation.
Should that $200 billion spent in/on Iraq perhaps have been used to finally discover some high-tech alternative energy. Yes.
But it was not and nothing can change the past – only the future.
My comment is do not pull US troops out of Iraq.
Instead, double the amount of US troops there.
Give the US soldiers everything they need, and then some.
Boots on the ground…..
We have to remain there in force to secure our oil interests.
I see no other solution.
The worst thing we could do is to just pull out, leaving the remains for Iran and more Jihad.
The world we live in today does not care what wise old men say and that is a pretty sad state of affairs.
Yep, all “journalists” who misreport the truth during war to further their personal anti-war beliefs owe Cronkite a huge debt of gratitude, for he is their king.
Uncle Walter mislead the American people into thinking the Tet Offensive was a massive U.S. military defeat.
Instead the communist leaders launched the Tet Offensive and destroyed their ability to wage war. They miscalculated thinking the could face down the U.S. military. They never again were able to wage anything but a running gun battle. BUT Uncle Walter lead the charge on the home front to destroy the American publics’ confidence in the U.S. military.
Thousand of American GI’s lost their lives in the ensueing war of attrition. In my opinion due in no small part to Uncle Walter.
Uncle Walt still has a legacy? Only of misleading the public and, in recent years, putting out points of view that can’t be defended.
What this world needs is more actors and former news anchors to tell us how things should be.
to #-6
Imagine what 200 billion would have acomplished if it had been invested in the Alberta oil sands instead. It wouldn’t have taken war with Alberta either, they would have gladly taken the investment without a fight.
Ok, you neo-con ass**** blaming Cronkite for the US failure in Vietnam have got me going.
You are plain full of garbage. The Administrations, both Johnson and Nixon lied to the American people. As those lies became known and the body bags and crippled soldiers started coming home is what turned the American public against the war.
The three key episodes that turned America against the Vietnam War.
Three pictures. 1) A Buddhist’s Monk setting himself on fire with gasoline in Saigon as a protest against the war. 2) A young naked girl running towards the camera screaming in pain from her napalm burns. 3) A South Vietnam General shooting a Viet Cong suspect in the head.
The Military’s exposure.
The Pentagon Papers publication. The Governments attempt to shut them down because of National Security instead of fiction woke up many people. That the American public was being lied to influenced many people against the Pentagon’s true objectives..
Chicago
The Police brutality at the Democratic National Convention against those who had come to be heard. The television reports went around the country, parents saw how their young children were being treated if they dared question what so many fought and died for in WWII and Korea.
If you notice, there are no news reporters in the list. But every key listed was reported through news outlets. And every key incident HAPPENED. Don’t blame the messenger for the message.
Pat,
I will blame the messenger, when he admits he misses being able to “‘set the agenda’; what a reporter reports is as important as what isn’t reported. Ask any of the troops returning from Iraq when the learn how precious little of the good they do gets any coverage here in the states.
i sure hope sam foley is rushing to his local recruiting office and volunteering his body for the bush machine because i am not — been there, done that. now waiting to see the patriots put their flag in their big mouths.