Someone I know passed on this link. I don’t know much about this guy or his credentials, apart from what’s written in the article. Anyone know more than me about his commentary here?
Apologies if he’s come up in the past; I did a search both here and in the BBQ Pit on his name, and didn’t find anything. Thanks!
He is not the only one who opposes the idea. Even in Congress there is a lot of opposition, not to mention around the rest of the world. When people like Eagleburger and Kissinger are against it I think it is reasonable to think it may not be the best idea.
If the US starts a war it is going to mean a ton more chances for terrorism, a lot more security everywhere, a hassle for everybody in every corner of the earth, the airlines will lose even more money and it will be a bad thing for the economy. I cannot see doing something like that unless the alternative is worse which is not clear right now. Congress is not convinced and neither am I.
BTW
http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/08/18/iraq.us.reut/index.html
The United States gave Iraq vital battle-planning help during its war with Iran as part of a secret program under President Ronald Reagan even though U.S. intelligence agencies knew the Iraqis would unleash chemical weapons, The New York Times reported Sunday.
We’ve come across Mr. Ritter before. His old organization, UNSCOM (the weapons inspectors) does not agree that Iraq does not have weapons of mass destruction. More precisely, there are considerable amounts of WMD that Iraq has acknowledged existed than UNSCOM verified were destroyed. Iraq claims they “unilaterally” destroyed the rest of their WMD; UNSCOM dryly notes that this can’t be verified.
UNSCOM’s 1999 report to the Security Council.
http://www.fas.org/news/un/iraq/s/990125/
Sua
Scott Ritter has don a 180[sup]o[/sup] turn. When he was a weapons inspector, he was gung ho to inspect, and he made a big public fuss, when Iraq interfered with the inspections.
Yet, since the inspectors were kicked out, he’s been strongly against taking action against Iraq.
**Actually Kissenger is strongly in favor. The New York Times made misinterpreted (to be kind to them) comments he had made, and other news sources reported, based on the Times’s mistake. Kissenger made his beliefs very clear last Monday in the WaPo.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110002153
Nor is it true that many in Congress oppose the idea. A few have come out against it, Dick Armey and Chuck Hegel come to mind, but I can hardly think of any others.
“We have killed almost six times as many Iraqis [1.5 million] trying to eliminate weapons of mass destruction programs, than the weapons of mass destruction have killed in the entire 20th century.” - Scott Ritter, U.S./U.N. arms inspector who resigned in disgust
Apos, Ritter “resigned in disgust” because he thought the US wasn’t doing enough to force Iraq to reveal its WMD. To avoid cross-posting, I provide a link to another GD thread, http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=130116
In my last post of that thread, I have a link to an interview Ritter gave just after he resigned. In that interview, Ritter unequivocally stated that Iraq still had WMD.
Sua