Cronkite: Speech by Bush'masterful but worrisome'

Walter Cronkite, the former CBS news anchor who writes a weekly opinion piece for King Features Syndicate uses a recent column to describe the foreign-policy speech President Bush gave recently in London as ''eloquent, idealistic and worrisome.''

Walter Cronkite

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Cronkite says Bush's address was masterfully crafted to defend his foreign policy against widespread European hostility, although parts of it sounded a bit ''off-key'', leading Cronkite to question the president's ''depth of conviction.'' Cronkite writes:

''That depth is suspect because of his poor record of following through. In Afghanistan, the pledge to reconstruct and democratize that country seemed all but abandoned in order to concentrate forces and finances on the invasion of Iraq.

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Remember the "road map" for Israel/Palestine? Palestinian terrorists shredded it with their suicide bombs, but not before Bush had failed in his promise to pressure both sides to make critical concessions. He denounced and renounced Yasser Arafat, but seemed, as he had in the past, unwilling or incapable of holding Ariel Sharon's feet to the fire.

Today there is growing skepticism concerning his promise to stay the course in Iraq. With the security situation there worsening by the day, the decision to craft a new plan seemed not just defensible but mandatory.

But suspicions were raised by the new timetable, which would put an Iraqi council in charge by next June and send a substantial number of American troops home.

It might be simply coincidental that this timing meshes with next year's re-election campaign. But coincidence does inspire some skepticism.''

Cronkite also points to a related issue that he says goes directly to Bush's sincerity.

''That is his acknowledgement in the London speech of "good-faith disagreements" over the war. How does that harmonize with the Republicans' (and Bush's) egregious use of such disagreements to bludgeon the Democrats prior to the 2002 midterm elections – a political mugging we can expect to see more of next year?''

In recent years, Cronkite's been noted for his globalist views in numerous speeches. As WorldNetDaily reported, the 86-year-old advocates the U.S. giving up sovereignty and the creation of a U.N. standing army.

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In a speech at the United Nations in 1999, Cronkite said the first step toward achieving a one-world government is to strengthen the U.N.

"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," he said. "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."

Cronkite joined CBS in 1950, and was the anchor of the CBS Evening News until 1981, when he was succeeded by current anchor Dan Rather.

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