A recent diary by
dadanation titled
1968 -- the 143-day roller-coaster contained a reference to Walter Cronkite's broadcast that some say was the tipping point in the American public's support for the Vietnam War:
February 27: walter cronkite closes his special broadcast resulting from his trip to vietnam following the tet offensive who, what, where, when, and why? raising considerable doubt over the government's credibility regarding what the american people have been told about the efforts in vietnam. his closing remarks specifically question the manner in which the US can and may leave vietnam.
I've been thinking about how we have no Cronkites now, and what would Cronkite say today if
he were anchoring the 6 o'clock news?
So of course I searched .... dKos ... and found that Cronkite has voiced outspoken criticism of Bush, in a post-election press conference (diaried by
BigDog04 in
this). Cronkite criticized Bush's policies, arguing that "the Bush administration has spent itself into ruin while embroiling the country in a war that will eventually make public revulsion to the war in Vietnam look `like peanuts.'" Further he said that "The most immediate problem ... is Iraq."
That led me to wonder: WWWD - What Would Walter Do? I recalled spotting Walter's post-Tet broadcast and tried my hand at updating it. The results follow:
Tonight, back in more familiar surroundings in New York, we'd like to sum up our findings in Iraq, an analysis that must be speculative, personal, subjective. Who won and who lost in the great offensive against Fallujah? I'm not sure. The insurgents did not win; our commanders in the field claim that we did. The referees of history may make it a pyrrhic victory. Further offensives may be required in the big cities in and beyond the Sunni Triangle. Mosul could well fall, with a terrible loss in American lives, prestige and morale, and this is a tragedy of our stubbornness there. It is doubtful that the American forces can ever eliminate the insurgency across the breadth of the country without far more substantial commitments of troops and ever greater alienation of the Iraqi population. Another quagmire. On the political front, past performance gives no confidence that the Allawi government can cope with its problems, now compounded by the daily attacks on its officials. It may not fall, it may live in exile within the Green Zone, but it probably won't show the independent qualities demanded by the people of this ancient and proud nation. Another quagmire.
We have been too often disappointed by the optimism of our civilian leadership, both in the White House and the Pentagon, to have faith any longer in the silver linings they find in the darkest clouds. They may be right, that the insurgents' current offensive is forced by the realization that they could not win an election now, and that they hope that any success in the offensive will improve their position for eventual elections. It would improve their position, and it would also require our realization, that we should have had all along, that we are occupiers -- occupiers, not builders of democracy. For it seems now more certain than ever that the unsustainable bloodshed in Iraq is to end in withdrawal. This summer's almost certain upsurge in violence will either end in more of the same attrition or terrible escalation; and for every means we have to escalate, the enemy can match us, and that applies to the invasion of Syria or Iran, the use of death squads, or the mere commitment of one hundred, or two hundred, or three hundred thousand more American troops to the battle. And with each escalation, the world comes closer to the brink of cosmic disaster.
To say that we are closer to victory today is to believe, in the face of the evidence, the optimists who have been wrong in the past. To suggest we are on the edge of defeat is perhaps even still too optimistic. To say that we have already fallen over the precipice seems the only realistic, however unsatisfactory, conclusion. We can not afford to bury more of America's children, more of her material wealth, and all of her political capital on the off chance that George W. Bush and Donald Rumsfeld are right. In the next few months we will be sorely tested. It is increasingly clear to this reporter that the only rational way out is to get out, not as victors, but as an honorable people who, upon realizing their horrible mistake, re-asserted their highest principles, and did the right thing.
This is Walter Cronkite. Good night.
Now this is just something I made up. But if I were Walter (I'd pardon my presumption and) I'd ask CBS for a few minutes of their time at oh, say, 6 p.m. Maybe they'd call it "Walter's 'We Are Quagged in a Quagmire" broadcast.
That's What I'd Do.
Testing how updates work...