Scott Ritter: Former U.N. Weapons Inspector and 'Talking Head' Pedophile Talks at Wellesley

News Analysis:
Scott Ritter: Former U.N. Weapons Inspector and 'Talking Head' Pedophile Speaks at Wellesley

Former chief U.N. weapons inspector Scott Ritter spoke at Wellesley on March 4 as the keynote speaker for Wellesley's political activism week.

The theme was: "Come on Baby Light My Fire. Sparking social change through activism."

"I am a white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant male," he began "which on this campus is something more loathed than embraced." This would be Ritter's only truthful statement of the evening.

After receiving groans from the audience in response, he quickly returned to their favor by launching into an arrant attack on the United States government. Ritter struck a scholarly pose throughout the evening as he assiduously attempted to draw a parallel between President Bush and Adolf Hitler, carrying the argument so far as to declare that the equivalent of the Nuremburg trials would soon await the United States government.

This assertion was sprung on the audience only after Ritter spent a good ten minutes discussing the merits and values of our great democracy. Last time I checked, a democracy such as ours has never waged a war of ethnic cleansing in its homeland. No matter. According to Ritter, the U.S. government is not only a Nazi regime, but will soon be committing war crimes dramatic enough to merit trials in a world court. All present-day S.S. officers take cover!

This was only the first in an evening of lavish contradictions and flat out inaccuracies served up by Mr. Ritter.

"Iraq is an outlaw state," Ritter divulged, with a "brutal dictator." Yet Ritter contends in his documentary project "Endgame: Closing the File on Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction," that it is the United Nations' economic sanctions, and not the dictator, who is responsible for the death of more than 1.2 million Iraqis.

What Ritter failed to mention is that even though Iraq claims its people are malnourished as a result of sanctions, it actually exports food to other nations. Coalition ships enforcing the UN sanctions against Iraq recently diverted the ship M/V MINIMARE containing 2,000 metric tons of rice and other material being exported from Iraq for hard currency.

Moreover, thanks to the oil-for-food program, the people of Iraq, especially those in the north, are getting needed foods and medicines. The program would be even more effective if the Iraqi regime were to cooperate. Iraqi obstruction of the oil-for-food program, not United Nations sanctions, is the primary reason the Iraqi people are suffering. Perhaps Ritter missed that when he was busy inspecting.

When addressing the possibility of Iraq's weapons stockpile since inspections in 1991, Ritter said "What weapons?" Soon after, however, Ritter was discussing the numerous incidences during which his team found evidence and took pictures of biological and chemical weapons programs, including a program for the enrichment of uranium.

For inspections to work, Ritter said, two criteria must be met. One, there must be the willing cooperation of the government. Two, there has to be willing enforcement of any law passed.

Given that, as Ritter asserted, the Iraqis lied about their weapons inventory through false declarations, denied entry to sites and fired guns on inspectors attempting to photograph these sites, and U.N. resolution 1441 (an international law) has been violated, it would seem that Ritter was making an argument for war. But no! Ritter was not. For two allegedly well-researched reasons: One, "We don't have enough men to fight this war," and two, "War ain't a video game."

Well, Scott, I am pretty sure the veterans of America and the enlisted men and women in our armed forces are well aware that war is not a video game. And it is fair to assume that most folks know this too. As for size, it does matter and not only does the U.S. military have enough men to fight a war in Iraq, it has a technological capability greater than the next ten largest countries combined.

Later in the evening, Ritter proclaimed to an audience now ebullient over his criticism of the establishment, "The government lied to the American people!" He went on to say that Colin Powell lied not just to the American people, but to the U.N. and the world in his presentation on February 6. It was, he proclaimed, "theatrics!"

What evidence did Ritter give to support such a bold assertion? Well, none. But he did mention in passing that he had been out of the U.S. intelligence loop for four years. Huh?

On it went. "The ideology of the conservative slice is taking advantage of the naïve people!" Ritter roared as leftist professors, peaceniks and a rag tag collection of surrender monkeys lauded him with a standing ovation. We should all take cover, the former inspector proclaimed, because Führer Bush is going to wage war on a country whose leader isn't all that bad. He only starves his people and tests chemical weapons on them, violates numerous U.N. resolutions, shoots at an international coalition of inspectors, commits war crimes and holds imperialist ambitions for the Middle East.

Perhaps it is time for Ritter to start using the Internet to do some research rather than to solicit 14- and 16-year-old minors for a rendezvous in diners. Apparently Internet sex-crimes are not as offensive as war crimes to Ritter, or to his wife for that matter. Saddam, 14-year-olds, Saddam, 14-year-olds . It is a hard call.