Volume 15 - 1 edits.qxd - Nuclear Age Peace Foundation

Broadcasting PeaceExcerpts from the live interview with Walter Cronkite and Sam DonaldsonDonaldson: Walter, do you think we are safer or less safe because of our strike against Iraq?Cronkite: Far less safe.Donaldson: Why?Cronkite: The problem quite clearly is that we have excited the Arab world, the Muslim world, to take up arms against us, farbeyond what was being done by Al-Qaeda and others, of the terrorist groups. We have created a new body of importance in theterrorist groups who are coalescing around the Iraqi situation.Donaldson: They [the administration] did not prepare for the peace. They had no plan after that. They made miscalculations,did they not? And so at the pointwe’re at now, answer the fundamentalquestion: We’re hip deepin the big muddy once again, asLyndon Johnson’s time showed:how do we get out [of Iraq]?Cronkite: I proposed what Iwould like to hear theDemocratic candidate say. Myproposal was that he would saythat one of the first steps hewould take upon moving into theOval Office, besides changingthe furniture around a bit, wouldbe to organize a panel of retiredSam Donaldson and Walter Cronkite. Photo by Rick A. Carter.generals who have come out duringthe various discussions of the Iraq War against what has been going on in Iraq, the entire lack of planning, inadequatenumber of troops, all of the things that these retired generals have come on television to report on. He would organize thispanel and would tell them he wanted their plan for us to get out of Iraq with honor, to get our troops home and to have them dothis within the next six months. I can imagine, I would say if I were the candidate, what would happen in America as those boysand girls came home. Every Broadway, every Main Street would be festooned with American flags. We would welcome thoseboys and girls back in every town and community of America. They would be honored as they’ve never been honored before.But more than that, we’d be sure that every one of those people would be entitled to an education that we would pay for to helppay them back for their service....Donaldson: How are you going to convince the American people that we should in fact obey the rule of international law?Cronkite: As with almost everything else to be solved with our national being and for world peace, it’s going to require a lot ofeducation. We begin with that. We’ve got to improve our educational system to the degree that we have a literate society towhich you can appeal with a reasonable argument rather than the passion of the moment or the passion of the past that has tobe preserved. That won’t work. We have to have a revolutionary change. You know, Tom Jefferson, old Tom said at one time thatthe nation that expects to be ignorant and free, expects what never can and never will be. We are on the precipice of being soignorant that we cannot function well as a democracy.To read the full transcript, watch video clips or hear audio clips of the live interview with Walter Cronkite and Sam Donaldson,please visit http://www.wagingpeace.org/menu/programs/public-events/evening-for-peace/2004/21st-evening.htm.Nuclear Age Peace Foundation 9