Walter Cronkite: "The Invasion of Iraq Was ILLEGAL From the Start-Our Troops Must Leave"

Our Troops Must Leave Iraq
By Walter Cronkite and David Krieger
CommonDreams.org

Tuesday 04 December 2007

The American people no longer support the war in Iraq. The war is being carried on by a stubborn president who, like Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon during the Vietnam War, does not want to lose. But from the beginning this has been an ill-considered and poorly prosecuted war that, like the Vietnam War, has diminished respect for America. We believe Mr. Bush would like to drag the war on long enough to hand it off to another president.

..................

The invasion of Iraq was illegal from the start. Not only was Congress lied to in order to secure its support for the invasion of Iraq, but the war lacked the support of the United Nations Security Council and thus was an aggressive war initiated on the false pretenses of weapons of mass destruction. There were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Nor has any assertion of a relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda proven to be true. In the end, democracy has not come to Iraq. Its government is still being forced to bend to the will of the US administration.

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. This amount could double if we continue the war. Each minute we are spending $500,000 in Iraq. Our losses are incalculable. It is time to remove our military forces from Iraq.

We must ask ourselves whether continuing to pursue this war is benefiting the American people or weakening us. We must ask whether continuing the war is benefiting the Iraqi people or inflicting greater suffering upon them. We believe the answer to these inquiries is that both the American and Iraqi people would benefit by ending the US military presence in Iraq.

more at:
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/12/04/5598/
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Walter Cronkite is the former long-time anchor for CBS Evening News. David Krieger is President of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/12/04/5598/

Thank you Walter. :applause:

have been.

I know some that believe it was Walter's fault we lost Viet Nam. They claim when he said the war was unwinnable, the Americans lost their will to continue, when, in reality, that had already occured. He just stated the obvious.

Smart money is on Cronkites judgment.

Don

such an obvious atrocity as the 'war' against the people of Iraq, using the people of America's money to do so, whether for oil or just to fill the pigmedia with news so noone notice the NORC results (which prove bush is unelected) which earlier had been delayed by 911...how bush can escape jail is to be seen...
i've never hated a public figure as much as bush...even hitler (or stalin, or Mao) at least could point to their country's traumas for their insanity- bush inherited as good a national situation as possible

And so does most of the world and my fave candidate.

wallace and tony freemantle. i would love to see walter cronkite interview the-bush-happy-as-a-lark-parachuter who gets to parachute at age 80, show that old farts don't have to sit around, does it for the thrill of it, and does it all with stolen money from us!

Do they still even care about what respected, professional journalists of the "old school" have to say?

Will Democrats in Congress listen to him?

if the stenos and mediawhores of our current pack of lazy pressluts ever felt shame for what they've been perpetrating?

I would say, "no"..because the power rove promised them trumps conscience to people like blitzer, crowley, couric, ..the list is endless.

Thank the Universe for Keith Olbermann who came into the perfect storm at msnbc to be who he is.

why is everything ugly associated with gender specific words?
sluts, whores.
examine your dialogue. You really don't need that to get your point across. but you piss me off when you are lazy like that. Do you have female family, friends, etc., ? what would they think that their sexuality, gonads, is the absolute ugliest adjective you can come up with?

In this context,whore and slut mean somebody who kisses ass, or gets fucked, or demeans themselves, for money or favor.
It does not mean female or male. I hear males called "whore", "slut" and "bitch" all the time.
I get your point, but I think the meaning of the words has been losing its gender specificity over the last 20 years or so. I don't think people who use those terms when describing the press are increasing male chauvinist attitudes, in fact, I think they are removing the chauvanist teeth from those terms and replacing them with gender neutral teeth.

I do agree that saying so and so "has balls" is a gender lie, since balls have nothing to do with bravery, but media whores do have everything to do with selling themselves.

I never would have expected Dan Rather to get marginalized. My grandmother, a rock-ribbed ultra conservative, used to hang on his every word in the 80's. And look what happened to him.

But with Walter it probably won't even come to that, if nobody of this generation remembers or cares about his credibility. I only do in a secondhand way myself.

It has nothing to do with it being illegal.

THAT we don't seem to give a rip about.

Millions of us opposed the war from the start because it was WRONG, morally and legally. We opposed the war long before the losses began to pile up.

Many of us here at DU and across the land opposed the war from the start because IT WAS WRONG in every way (a reason I have a hard time supporting any Dem candidate who voted yea on IWR back in October 2002). That was why Kucinich's Prayer for America speech before the California State Democratic Party resonated so broadly and launched his 2004 presidential bid.

But the other poster is right as well. Many NEW/recent opponents to this awful war are so inclined because of the loss of American lives and the impact on the American treasury.

The majority of Americans are just tired of this mismanaged fiasco and its financial drain. But if asked they'd say Bush** was right to invade...they don't know or care about the lies that got us there. They don't even know the bombing of Iraq started in 2002.

the american people was solidly behind this war at the beginning. They just wanted it on the cheap, and in their ignorance, they thought they could have it on the cheap. they called us cautious voices "cowards" or other such names.

Now we can ssay, "we told you so", and now they retreat to their homes, with their tails between the legs, knowing full well they were wrong.

But, at what cost did their arrogance end?

The American people have never been above allowing their government to do illegal things...it's only when they're forced to put their snout to the crap they've laid that they recoil (just like a dog).

God, how I wish there was some foreign Eisenhower that would force the American people to walk by OUR concentration camps or the destruction in Iraq. How I wish we WERE FORCED to see what we have wrought. Maybe it would teach us the humility and shame that the Germans have exhibited after World War II.

As you point out, where is the outrage about illegal things the government is doing? Just a big, collective yawn. Doing illegal things and hurting others is fine, as long as we don't get caught. As long as we aren't painted as "losers". Since we're "Number 1", it's OK whatever we do, because "America is the best."

"God, how I wish there was some foreign Eisenhower that would force the American people to walk by OUR concentration camps or the destruction in Iraq. How I wish we WERE FORCED to see what we have wrought. Maybe it would teach us the humility and shame that the Germans have exhibited after World War II."

VERY well put! Our noses need to be rubbed in it!

You have said what needs to be said, over and over! :thumbsup:

:hug:

I know he's in his 90's, but God do we need a decent television journalist out there (besides Olbermann).

Enablers. :mad:

for his 'thought crimes' against the administration.

They'd have a huge mob tearing down the prison walls.

the real news or news that is of importance.

the same ones the Soviet leaders used to have when the party got tired of them.

day of mediawhores that Walter Cronkite is still with us and using his voice to state just the facts.

Thank you, Mr Cronkite! :loveya:

These days, though, losing Cronkite means nothing -- those who haven't seen the light by now will gladly keep themselves in the dark.

And replace Cronkite with someone deferential. He wasn't thinking ahead.

nation that was one of the most developed in the Middle East in terms of an educated populace. Iran is next. I'm waiting for Walter to be interviewed by MSM, to get a perspective from someone who has known from World War II through Vietnam. . . . crickets . . . .

NoFederales

Whether or not the Chimptard's Manly Surge is "working", the fact remains that we shouldn't be there at all, and never should have been.

wtg.....A great american has spoken.

Always the voice of truth.

of meeting Mr. Cronkite several years ago during the Kennedy Center Honors. That fond memory just grew even fonder.

I doubt if even the most famous living broadcaster of the Greatest Generation is really the key to resolving this.

The fruit cannot be taken out while the hand is clutched on it, yet the monkey will not
let go.

but better late than never.

"...we've lost middle America."

Lyndon B. Johnson, 36th President of the United States

The "news" has gone down hill since he retired.

It just goes to show how bizzaro things really are when
when the 2 most reliable "news" sources today are
on Comedy Central.

Walter Cronkite is one of the few people in his profession that I ever had any respect for, and I thank him for this.:applause:

Dan Rather was a joke.

If Walter had been around, there may have been questions raised about the truthfulness of this administration.

much less a network anchor.

eom

He was then and he is now. He was the KO of the 1960-70s.

Now we will suddenly hear from other reporters who will say something like "I have always thought the same thing he said." So irritating, but you know it's gonna happen.

Thanks for speaking up, Mr. Cronkite!!! :applause:

:kick:

...will do it anyway unless they are fully exposed on their lies and impeached now! Iran is opting for Petrol-Euros and dropping the use of Pietro-Dollars. That Will force the other OPEC countries including Saudi Arabia and Venezuela to jump on that Euro band wagon as well and then our economy and monetary system will go right into the toilet. Bush is hoping to delay that from happening until after he leaves office in January 2009 leaving the next President holding the smelling sack of putrid hyper-inflated paper that once was the U.S. dollar.

of Saddam.

The Uncle Walter moment strikes again? Oh please let it be so! Save us, Uncle Walter; you're our only hope! (Not really, there are lots of people saying this, but let us hope he will be heard!)

This is not exactly the moment I usually turn on the computer. But I am so glad I did. Get us out of this Bush/corporate/neocon quagmire and let us be the greatest country ever again.

We are the greatest country ever because we learn from the past, however reluctantly, and we question ourselves, which means we question authority.

OMG. I have not read the OP completely, much less the replies. Hope I am not going off half cocked. But I can't help it, I am so hopeful!

is with us.

Shout this loud from every hilltop - every cell phone tower, send it round the world!

"The invasion of Iraq was illegal from the start."

"We believe the answer to these inquiries is that both the American and Iraqi people would benefit by ending the US military presence in Iraq."

Can we finally bring the BFEE to their knees, can we finally send them to prison or do we need to wait another 50 years or so until Jenna and junior one of them are "in charge"? Can we finally put in prison all the "Iran/Contra" criminals? Is it just too damned much to hope for???

:patriot:

Some people just won't believe anything until they see it on TV --- !!!

Where have all the Walter Cronkites gone...?

Of course, that is the equivalent drop in all MSM respectability and integrity over the last 30 to 35 years.

sad to say but the bloggers of the world, we are pissing in the wind...

TO ACTUALLY MAKE A CHANGE... DON'T FORGET TO GET AT LEAST ONE PERSON REGISTERED...
IN MINORITY COMMUNITIES... HELP E A R L Y TO GET THEM ID CARDS, OR REGISTER TO VOTE BY MAIL

IT IS NOT DIFFICULT AND FOR A FEW DIMES YOU CAN SKIP STANDING IN LINE, WAITING FOR SOME F(*&^ VOTING MACHINE TO MISCOUNT YOUR VOTE


V O T E B Y M A I L ----- E A S Y T O D O

what i have done is this..... get 100 vote-by-mail registration forms..... hand them out at the local "whereever poor and minority people" gather......

GRASSROOTS ?? ? ?? ? ?
THIS IS THE EFFORT TO CHANGE THINGS IN 2008

Walter Cronkite - national treasure

how sorry of a society we have become.

They aren't found in the corporate media.

His icy objectivity is starting to look a little like collaboration.

He was truely one of the best newsmen of our time. Lots of admiration for his man.

*crickets*, I expect.

Not that it gets heard in the media..

Oh, wait.

:evilgrin:

I wish you would have spoken out earlier. The conformity of opinion at the beginning of the war is what allowed the American populace to become drunk with its own arrogance and ignorance, and it's that that led to the war.

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r

And he speaks the truth! Now if only America will listen!