Walter Cronkite: Is Bush's speech to be trusted?

[reprehensor]

Is Bush's speech to be trusted?
By Walter Cronkite


Some knowledge of history and the memories of a long life have given me a sense of wonder at the shape-shifting habit of ideals and the ideologues who espouse them. What brings this to mind is the eloquent and idealistic foreign-policy speech that President Bush recently gave in London.

Some commentators liken Bush's rhetoric to the idealism of Ronald Reagan, but it has earlier, Democratic antecedents, both in Woodrow Wilson's war "to make the world safe for democracy" and in FDR's "Four Freedoms." In both cases, these ideals were carried forward on American bayonets.

Bush's London address was masterfully crafted to defend his foreign policy against widespread European hostility. And he seems to have been at least partially successful, though parts of it sounded a bit off-key.

Bush offered a softer, more human image than the one Europeans have become used to. He showed himself capable of disarming, self-deprecating humor. He was conciliatory, admitting that there were "good-faith disagreements in your country and mine" over the war in Iraq. And he added something with which I agree: "Whatever has come before, we now have only two options: to keep our word or to break our word."

Original:
http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~29003~1795418,00.html

[xchrom]

1. ''our word''?!?!?!

that mother fucker is not the damn president to start with and had no business commiting the u.s. to a war where we were not under ANY kind of threat.
jail, jail for bush -- i guess i should shut up now.
btw -- i loved cronkites article -- i just got stuck on the t our word part.

[KensPen]

2. AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRGH

I hate hearing the right wax poetically about what a brilliant speaker Bush is. Listen to Fox news long enough and you'll leave believing Bush is our generation's Churchill.

I hate hearing all his actions being supported as common sense by the "Bush Doctrine".