SCOTT RITTER on IRAQ and U.S. Policy

Attacks by critics:

2 Minutes of Ritter addressing the character assassination conducted by Steven Hayes in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal

From interview on Flashpoints, September 18, 2002

Please,

The guy lost all creditablity when he took the Iraqi money for his book. He can try to talk around it but that's what he did.

If the funder was not a Saddam agent, then Ritter was still an idiot to take it.

He is beginning to sound like Lindberg after his visits to Germany.

he didn't take Iraqi money for the book, and the movie was paid for by an American citizen of Iraqi decent, an American who is no different from the other Americans that think this strategy to solve the Saddam problem with war is the wrong way to go.

The funny thing about all you folks that try to discredit Ritter is that you don't focus on the specific facts that he addresses, and the alternatives to our policy that grow out of that fair and reasonable analysis. Ritter, after all, was someone that neoconservatives gave awards to for his valor and hard work busting Saddam's ass 1998 and before. But Ritter came to believe that the UN resolution mandate of disarmament was replaced by the US policy objective of regime change, and that our policies had inherent contraindications that came about thereafter.

Deal with the policy debate. Deal with the issues. Don't waste your time focusing on a messenger that happens to be shining a light on the contradictions of our policies.

I think it's safe to say that all Americans wouldn't shed a tear to see Saddam go. But some of us are wondering about our government's policies and wondering if there's a better way to go about achieving the objective of a safer world.

You have been lied to about Ritter's integrity, but my message will not change your opinion. My message is not to you. My message is to all those that read this thread, for there are some among the readers that are not sure if Ritter's integrity is legit. To those, I say, study the issues. It doesn't mater one iota who Ritter is. What we are all talking about and looking at is the U.S. policy on Iraq, Iraq's history, and what the U.N. has done. Who gives a rat's ass who Ritter is (and he'd say the same thing and indeed expresses a similar note in the 2 minute interview in this thread -- see the one noting his address to critics).

So there.