Walter Cronkite excoriates Bush but supports troops

Hanover Eagle -- Cronkite said he is very disappointed and "considerably worried" that affairs had come to this pass. He said that, as always, the military is more confident than perhaps it should be. He nevertheless predicted the military will perform its mission quickly, and with a minimum of casualties. What concerns him most is the aftermath of our "adventure in Iraq."

Allies in Western Europe have turned their backs on us, Cronkite said, but we will need their moral support, and their financial help, when Iraq's new government is set up. He said Bush's "arrogance" in addressing our allies "has been exceptional," and they have taken "great umbrage" with this. Without their help, Cronkite said, it will be hard to maintain that the U.S. went into Iraq with the mission of liberating its people from a cruel dictator, and did not simply have the intention of taking over the country.

"The cost of this episode, this adventure, is going to be terribly severe," Cronkite said. He blamed Congress for not demanding an accounting of the expense involved. He said that as the troops are paid, as equipment is replaced when the sands destroy it, and as Navy ships have been deployed and waiting out at sea for months, Congress should be doing its job and calling out these expenses.

He added gravely, however, that this new paradigm, this "theory of preventive war" undertaken "without being attacked," is setting an example for the troubled countries of the world, especially in the case of African border wars - and perhaps imparting a lesson on the importance of owning weapons of mass destruction.