commondreams.org — What the war has accomplished is the undermining of US credibility throughout the world, the weakening of our military forces, and the erosion of our Bill of Rights. Nobel Laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz calculates that the war is costing American tax payers more than $1 trillion.
Dec 4, 2007 View in Crawl 4
bottledsunshineDec 4, 2007
Good old senile uncle Walter, the man who lied on national news about the Tet offensive. Don't believe me? Read General Giap's autobiography. Or just follow the link for an excerpt.<a class="user" href="http://www.geocities.com/Pentagon/Camp/7624/Generals/giap.htm">http://www.geocities.com/Pentagon/Camp/7624/Genera ...</a>
bottledsunshineDec 4, 2007
Sorry bad link. Try this one"General Giap and the NVA viewed the Tet Offensive as a costly military failure, and they were prepared to negotiate a surrender within a few months. Then, they heard Walter Cronkite (former CBS News anchor and correspondent) on TV proclaiming the success of the Tet Offensive by the communist NVA. They were amazed to hear reports of the U.S. Embassy being overrun when they knew the NVA had not gained access to the building itself. Further reports indicated riots and protests on the streets of America.According to Giap, these distorted reports were inspirational to the NVA. The American media were doing more for their cause than could any military victory. The NVA leadership decided then to persevere, anticipating that the protesters in America would help them achieve a victory they could not win on the battlefield. This decision was made at a time when the U.S. battlefield casualties were fewer than 10,000, from the end of 1967 to beginning of 1968."<a class="user" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vo_Nguyen_Giap">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vo_Nguyen_Giap</a>
ichingDec 5, 2007Submitter
Cronkite has spoken his mind on several topics since his retirement:Cronkite has been an advocate for requiring TV broadcast companies to provide free airtime to political candidates in the U.S. Cronkite claims that the U.S. political system is corrupted by the influence of campaign contributions, millions of dollars of which are spent on TV advertisements, many of which are negative political ads. Free airtime, according to Cronkite, would open up our public discourse and strengthen American democracy.On October 29, 2004, Walter Cronkite appeared on CNN's Larry King Live television program, just four days before the 2004 presidential election. In 2003, Cronkite, who owns property on Martha's Vineyard, became involved in a long-running debate over his opposition to the construction of a wind farm in that area.In his column, he has repeatedly condemned President George W. Bush and the 2003 invasion of Iraq. In 1998, he supported President Bill Clinton during the impeachment trial. He has also been a proponent of world government, writing fundraising letters for the World Federalist Association (now Citizens for Global Solutions). In accepting the 1999 Norman Cousins Global Governance Award at the ceremony at the United Nations, Cronkite said:It seems to many of us that if we are to avoid the eventual catastrophic world conflict we must strengthen the United Nations as a first step toward a world government patterned after our own government with a legislature, executive and judiciary, and police to enforce its international laws and keep the peace. To do that, of course, we Americans will have to yield up some of our sovereignty. That would be a bitter pill. It would take a lot of courage, a lot of faith in the new order. But the American colonies did it once and brought forth one of the most nearly perfect unions the world has ever seen.Cronkite appeared in the 2004 Robert Greenwald film Outfoxed, where he offered commentary on the alleged unethical and overtly political practices at the Fox News Channel. Cronkite remarked that when Fox News was founded by Rupert Murdoch, "it was intended to be a conservative organization — beyond that; a far-right wing organization."In January 2006, during a press conference to promote the PBS documentary about his career, Cronkite said that he felt the same way about America's presence in Iraq as he had about their presence in Vietnam in 1968 and that he felt America should recall its troops.
dray178355Dec 5, 2007
"FOX News, conservative talk radio, conservative authors (Glenn Beck #1 on the NYT bestsellers list again)." The only reason Beck is on the list is because of bulk purchases. The dagger by the title indicates that it was purchasd by a few people who are already giving it away. Nobody wants to buy it for real money. LOL.
graylady1Jul 18, 2009
Walter Cronkite lied on national news about the Tet offensive. Although a costly victory for the ARVN, local militia and the US, it was a critical strategic victory under difficult odds that imposed huge losses upon the enemy. On visiting Vietnam during this period, Walter Cronkite was heard to say, "I'm not going to tell the American people that!'Who knows what might have been different had he not violated the public trust and intentionally lied.