Scott Ritter visits Paducah to voice his viewpoint of Iraq, president Ritter_city_jk_9.8

Once dressed in camouflage as a U.S. Marine, Scott Ritter is now the voice not often heard when the war on Iraq is discussed.

Ritter became a U.N. weapons inspector after serving as a Marine but retired in 1998. Thursday he made his way to Paducah, Ky., to inform citizens on the truths he found in Iraq. He said it is the job of American citizens to hold the President accountable for lying to the nation.

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“The president made a decision on Aug. 29, 2002, to go to war in Iraq,” Ritter said. “And he lied about the reasons Americans are dying today.”

President Bush gave a speech on the Iraqi threat while in Cincinnati Oct. 7, 2002. He said former Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein is a homicidal dictator who is addicted to weapons of mass destruction.

It has now been more than 100 days since major military operations ended in Iraq, and weapons of mass destruction have yet to be found.

Monday evening, only four days before the two-year anniversary of Sept. 11, President Bush gave a progress report on the continuing effort to rebuild Iraq. In his address, there was no mention of weapons of mass destruction. He did, however, turn to the U.N. for support to rebuild Iraq, Afghanistan and other Middle East countries.

In his October speech he said, “The danger is already significant, and it only grows worse with time. If we know Saddam Hussein has dangerous weapons today – and we do – does it make any sense for the world to wait to confront him as he grows even stronger and develops even more dangerous weapons?

“Eleven years ago, as a condition for ending the Persian Gulf War, the Iraqi regime was required to destroy its weapons of mass destruction, to cease all development of such weapons and to stop all support for terrorist groups,” Bush said. “The Iraqi regime has violated all of those obligations. “

Ritter was previously part of an inspection team in Iraq. According to him, approximately 90 percent of Iraq’s chemical and biological weapons were uncovered by 1995, and it was the U.S. government that manipulated the security process mandated by the Security Council. He said not being allowed to do his job is what led to his resignation.

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In a May speech, which announced the end of the war, Bush said any outlaw regime with ties to terrorist groups and seeks or possesses weapons of mass destruction is a grave danger to the civilized world and will be confronted.

“The war in Iraq was a self-fulfilling prophecy,” Ritter said. “He [the president] knows there are biological weapons, but where are these, Mr. President?”

More than 200 people traveled to Paducah Tilgham High School to hear Ritter speak at an open forum. After an hour-long speech, about 20 concerned citizens lined up to ask questions they felt needed to be answered by Ritter. According to Ritter, he addressed the questions as honest as he could.

After outlining the ways in which he said the president lied to the entire nation, Ritter took some of the blame. He said we as American citizens are all responsible.

“It is our fault because we forgot what it means to be an American citizen,” Ritter said. “Citizenship is when we invest ourselves in our community.”

Patriots for Peace sponsored the open exchange of ideas. According to group member Craig Rhodes, those who attended the talk were performing an act of citizenship.

“Too many of us have wrapped ourselves in a cocoon of comfort, but it won’t last as long as we turn a blind eye in our name,” Rhodes said.

Patriots for Peace was formed two months before the war began. Rhodes said the group is made up of citizens from all walks of life that have gotten together out of concern for the direction the country has taken. He said airing the issues and getting them out into the community is healthy for our democracy and is something not done enough by the media.

The open forum had only one outspoken opponent to Ritter’s attacks on the president. Everyone else who asked questions out loud supported Ritter and what he had to say.

SIU student Robert Laurent, a senior in University Studies, brought a friend with him to hear Ritter. He said he went because he wanted to hear a first-person perspective from someone who was in Iraq.

“I think he was dead on,” Laurent said.

Laurent said he was vehemently opposed to the war before it began, so his views had not been changed by Ritter’s speech but had been rather re-enforced.

“He was a good voice for the views not often represented,” Laurent said.

According to Ritter, after Sept. 11, 2001, there was no new intelligence; instead there was a new perception of Iraq. He said Hussein was painted as a symbol of evil and killing him would solve all problems.

Ritter said while he feels the president was wrong in lying to the American people and engaging in a war that should not have existed to begin with, the American citizens are just as much to blame because they are not holding themselves accountable for allowing fighting to exist in our name.

But Americans were not the only ones lied to, according to Ritter. The president lied to foreign nations as well.

“They shouldn’t trust us; we lied to them, humiliated them and belittled them,” Ritter said.

He said we have shafted the international community on the war and many other issues, but it is the international community that the U.S. will need to help pay for all the damage.

The cost of maintaining the 148,000 troops in Iraq is $1 billion a week. And according to Ritter, Iraq is costing the United States money that was not budgeted for.

In the president’s Monday address he said the U.S. will do whatever is necessary to rebuild Iraq. He said he will submit a request to Congress for $87 billion for ongoing military and intelligence cost and $66 billion which will be needed over the next year for improvements in security and restoration of basic services in Iraq and Afghanistan.

American citizens may have to foot some of the bill in terms of taxes to pay for the cost of this war, but Iraqi citizens are paying their price as well.

“Iraq is a sea of chaos, not a sea of democracy,” Ritter said. “Ask the people in Iraq the price they paid for the war.”

Reporter Jackie Keane can be reached at [email protected]