Has the US war on terror just had its Cronkite moment?

Revelations about US domestic spying and the NSA's massive PRISM web-surveillance program have harmed not only trust in the Obama administration, but also confidence in US bond markets, which could have dire consequences.

In 1968, President Lyndon Johnson allegedly remarked – after CBS anchor Walter Cronkite reported that the US had become mired in a stalemate in the Vietnam War with no way out – “If I’ve lost Cronkite, I’ve lost Middle America.” A month later, the president announced he would not run for re-election.

I remember those years well. I was still very young, but I remember how the mainstream media in America – principally CBS – changed from simply reporting the government line to reporting on what their reporters were actually seeing on the ground in the war zone, and letting the pictures and video tell a different, more truthful story. Although my young mind was unable to articulate what I felt in words, I could feel and see the change in the faces of my brothers and sisters, especially my brother who was set to be drafted. These images have stayed with me.

Unfortunately, the lessons America learned in Vietnam – that we should not get entangled in unfocused, un-winnable foreign fights where only war profiteers are winning – were never learned. Today, the technology has gotten better. The propaganda has gotten better. And America has stormed through the Mideast with relish (and death), but I wonder now if Barack Obama might now be experiencing his Cronkite moment.

The ultra-liberal ‘Obamabot’ website Daily Kos, one of the sites that put Obama over the top in 2008 and 2012, as well as others in the Obama-can-do-no-wrong camp, have started to ask some difficult questions about America’s domestic spying and the PRISM program. Liberals are recoiling at the stench of Obama's actions.

Referring back again to Vietnam, at some point the truth about the war become obvious to everyone. America had no business being there, and the only ones who thought so were manufacturers of helicopters, M16’s and napalm. Today, a growing number of ‘liberal’ Americans who would have followed Obama to the ends of the Earth are realizing the war on terror is just another war-profiteering boondoggle that hands trillions of dollars over to defense contractors and mercenaries to fight shadows, no matter how many people end up on food stamps in America. (The number of families on food stamps just hit an all-time high.)

PRISM looks like that Cronkite moment: The moment when even the staunchest Obama supporter admits they’ve been taken for a ride.

As this realization of a fake war to boost the ill-gotten gains of a permanent kleptocrat class in America sinks in, look for a loss of confidence in other areas of the economy as well, not just Obama's presidency. The bond market, for example. There is already significant selling by the largest bond managers like Bill Gross of PIMCO (the biggest bond manager in the world), who sends out tweets regularly questioning the judgement and viability of Obama’s domestic and foreign policy. He pointed to recent revelations that he helped engineer a permanent back door to databases and the sensitive information of up to 50 American companies for use by high-frequency traders and market manipulators, who almost monthly admit their guilt in market-rigging and price-fixing.

And of course, after confidence in the president goes and confidence in the bond market evaporates, don’t expect the stock market to hold onto its recent gains either. It’s all looking rather ‘toppy,’ to use the Wall Street jargon.

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.