Scott Ritter Speaks in New Orleans : NOLA Indymedia

New Orleans, February 20-Scott Ritter came to New Orleans last night to promote some radical ideas: democracy and peace.

Ritter is a former US Marine intelligence officer and UN weapons inspector. He spoke out early and often to expose the lie the Bush administration used to whip up war fever to invade Iraq, its supposed arsenal of weapons of mass destruction.

Speaking at the Unitarian Universalist Church at Caliborne and Jefferson, Ritter began his remarks by decrying the current lack of participation in the US political system, calling for a revival of civic responsibility and activism.

“Citizenship as a notion is not catching on in our country,” Ritter said. “One document defines America, who we are and what we do, our belief in liberty and justice: the Constitution. How many of you have read the Constitution.”

“ ' We the People' is not the President, it's not the Congress,” he said. “It's the citizens of America. But in order to survive we must retain our status as citizens. We're not functioning as citizens.

“In post-911 New York people tell me they're willing to give up some of their liberties. 'We have to keep the terrorists from striking again,' they say. We're willing to let the government listen in on us with wireless surveillance. We ignore our constitutional right to be free of illegal search and seizure.”

“Today the US is a mindless mass of ignorance.”

“How do we hold the government accountable when we don't function as citizens?

“People say we don't get the info we need from the media. They feed you dreck, slop, puke—and you're happy. The media gives you what you're asking for.

“If we want to become citizens, we have to become intelligence citizen officers.”

To do so, Ritter urged people to first ask, “What do I want to know?” Then to collect info from various sources, process and analyze it, and finally answer the question.

As an example of the current dysfunctional situation, Ritter talked about the consensus that “the surge is working” in Iraq

“The surge is failing,” Ritter asserted. “It can't work. The surge is the equivalent of a band-aid placed on a chest wound. Iraq is shot in the chest, bleeding, maybe mortally.”

“But because we don't see the blood, we assume there isn't blood. In the last two months, the number of dead in Iraq has been rising again.

“Why has violence dropped in west Iraq, in Anbar province? The Sunnis there say they're against the US co-opted, Shiite-dominated central government in Bahgdad. So we gave the Sunnis lots of money, trained them, and formed them into militias.” This, Ritter said, only fuels the potential for a civil war.

“The Iraq government is not capable of governing outside the Green Zone,” Ritter said. “It's not a functional entity.

“But here both political parties don't want to talk about Iraq because 'the surge is working.' Why are the politicians not talking about Iraq? Because their constituents aren't demanding it.”

To those who seek to justify Bush's misadventure in Iraq by shouting “Support the Troops!”, Ritter declared, “We need to disengage the troops from a cause based on a lie. Nothing in Iraq is worth a single US troop's life.”

“Another war is looming in Iraq,” Ritter continued.

In a flyer handed out tonight, an excerpt from his recent article, “The War With Iran Has Already Begun,” (at CommonDreams.org) detailed US intelligence and military actions against Iran already in motion or ready to begin.

“We're swallowing the same old lies about Iran as we did about Iraq,” Ritter went on. “The administration is exploiting the collective ignorance of the American people. Ignorance leads to fear. We're told that Iran has a nuclear weapons program.”

Last year, however, a US intelligence report stated that Iran stopped its nuclear weapons program in 2003, and has not resumed it.

“Bush then said that until Iran acknowledged that there was such a program, it still constitutes a threat,” Ritter said. “It's just like with Iraq in 2002.

“But was there a nuclear weapons program? No, Iran has a nuclear energy program. It has a legal right to, because it signed the international nuclear weapons non-proliferation treaty. It's been the subject of a rigorous inspection program. The UN says it has no nuclear weapons program.

“We live in a time when renewed conflict in the Middle East is a real risk. Yet not a single politician is talking about it. It's just not part of the national debate. We need to talk about it as a collective nation.

“The US says the whole world is our backyard, we get to do what we want to 6.8 billion people. But when we keep pushing them, people will eventually push back. We need to insist on a national debate about this.”

In a Q&A session following his presentation, Ritter said, “We need campaign finance reform to level the playing field” before citizen democracy can become effective.

To a question about whether Bush and Cheney should be impeached, he answered, “We should be calling for hearings. Were we lied to? Was there torture? We need to demand that Congress do its job. It's not happening because Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid won't do their constitutional duty. People have to demand that they do their duty.

“They're all bought off because they have to sell their souls to run for office. Special interests own Congress. Until people step up and tell parties who you want, and then after hold those elected accountable, special interests” will dominate politics.

“We get the parties we deserve. We're stepping away from the political process. When people don't care, and don't vote, it creates a vacuum. That vacuum is filled by special interests.”

Scott Ritter's talk was sponsored by US Tour of Duty, Peace Action, and Fellowship of Reconciliation. For more info, go to http://www.ustourofduty.org, or call 757-642-8607.

HIS UNHOLINESS (GEORGE WARMONGER BUSH) : "Sorry to Oil the Post 9-11 Bush Iran Oil Bourse at the UN, the Post 9-11 Bush Sponsored Fake Documents at the UN, the Post 9-11 Bush Oil Black Ops in Kurdish Iran, the Post 9-11 Bush Hijacking of Domestic Spending Funds to Funds the Bush War For Oil in Iran, the Post 9-11 Bush Hijacking of Katrina Relief Funds to Fund the Bush War For Oil in Iran, the Post 9-11 BUSH DEMONAIC WMD CHOIR CNN NBC ABC CBS FOX, and the Post 9-11 Bush Sponsored Gas Price Gouging at the Gas Pumps but Oil comes First. FILL HER UP ???????????"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rkZ2mQ92Ow

A former Marine Corps intelligence officer and former U.N. weapons inspector in Iraq, Scott Ritter has been speaking out against the invasion of Iraq since before it started. With much having been said and many of his predictions on the occupation having proven accurate, what Ritter is saying now, about the Bush Administration’s march towards regime change in Iran, must be heard.
On his U.S. Tour of Duty, a public policy speaking tour, Scott Ritter recently spoke in New Orleans and Brasscheck T.V. was there with a camera.
Speaking with experience and knowledge of the subject, Ritter spoke about Iraq, Iran, the difference between Sunnis and Shiites, and Al Qaeda. He spoke the manipulation of intelligence, distortions, and outright lies that the Bush Administration has been using to justify their doctrine of preemptive war.
He also spoke at length about citizenship and responsibility...

Recorded February 20th 2008 at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of New Orleans.

For more about the U.S. Tour of Duty and public policy events, visit:
http://www.ustourofduty.org/