Not So Easy This Time

James Fallows speculates that the ISG report may turn out to play a role in galvanizing public opposition to the Iraq war in much the same way that Walter Cronkhite's denunciation of Vietnam mobilized popular opinion against that war.

As a liberal, no doubt Fallows wishes that were the case. But ironically, lefties like him have ended up making such a one-event turning point much less easy to achieve. That's because, beginning with Vietnam and continuing on, one of the left's primary objectives has been to undermine respect for authority . . . any authority.

Back when Cronkhite turned on Vietnam, there were some trusted figures in American life whose word would be taken as gold. For better or (in my view) for worse, Cronkhite was one of them.

But the culture of the left has bred distrust for institutions and contempt for "authority figures." With as very few exceptions, there's no one -- no, Mr. Fallows, not even James Baker -- who commands the kind of universal respect that would allow them to turn opinion against a war, a la Cronkhite.