Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: Scott Ritter aveva ragione

Published on Friday, January 14, 2005 by The Wichita Eagle (Kansas)
Ritter Right About Iraq
(by Randy Scholfield)
President Bush has been handing out Presidential Medals of Freedom
lately like they were Little League good sportsmanship ribbons.
The medal apparently is an award for good effort, even if the results
aren't so winning.
He awarded one to former Iraq viceroy Paul Bremer, who most notably
disbanded the Iraqi army, leading to our present security implosion.
And he gave one to George Tenet, the former CIA chief, who most notably
presided over two of the most devastating intelligence failures in the
nation's history: first Sept. 11, then Iraq's weapons of mass
destruction.
It was Tenet who told the president that finding weapons stockpiles in
Iraq was a "slam dunk."
Right.  Give that man a medal.
I'd like to nominate someone who really deserves the Presidential Medal
of Freedom: Scott Ritter.
Remember Ritter?  In a column in 2002, I wrote about the square-jawed
former U.S. Marine and United Nations weapons inspector, who was in
Wichita several months before the invasion of Iraq, giving a talk -- no,
a plea -- about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
He was adamant: Saddam Hussein had no WMDs -- at least none of any
consequence or that posed an imminent danger to the United States.
Certainly nothing that would warrant a rushed invasion.
"We can't go to war based on rhetoric and speculation," he told the
crowd. "We'd better make sure there is a threat out there worth
fighting."
He argued that 90 percent to 95 percent of Saddam's WMDs had been
dismantled by the U.N. inspection team in which he served from 1991 to
1998.  And that Saddam was otherwise well-contained by U.S. forces.
Now we know:  He was right.
You've probably heard that the Bush administration this week quietly
called off the weapons search.
There aren't any WMD stockpiles.  As in none.  Zip.  And, no, they
weren't moved to Syria.
The weapons didn't exist.
True to form, Bush insisted this week that it didn't matter -- that's
right, his main justification for taking this country into a bloody,
costly war didn't matter.  He would still have invaded Iraq!
Huh?  That makes sense only if he had planned to invade Iraq all along,
as critics charged.
I remember Ritter telling the largely anti-war audience at the Wichita
church that he wasn't a pacifist.  A proud U.S. Marine, he believed that
it was sometimes necessary to go to war and fight.  But he also believed
that it was wrong to put American fighting men and women in harm's way
without very good reason.
Ritter saw that his country was headed down a disastrous path and had
the guts to speak out.
At the time, he took a lot of abuse from Bush loyalists.  They
questioned his motives, and his integrity.  They compared him to Jane
Fonda.  They asked in mocking tones what exercise video he was making
next.
He could be saying, "I told you so." Instead, he's speaking out on
another security boondoggle -- the anti-missile defense shield program,
which is costing U.S. taxpayers billions of dollars without the Pentagon
even being able to prove that it works.
We're spending the national treasure on it, with nothing in the way of
enhanced security to show for it.  On the contrary, argues Ritter, it's
unleashing a dangerous and pointless new arms race.
Will we listen to him now?  Probably not.
But make no mistake:  Scott Ritter is an American patriot who cares
enough about his country to tell it the unvarnished truth. Give that man
a medal.  He actually deserves it.

 (by Randy Scholfield)
Azzz.... Una fonte cosi' autorevole di un giornalista cosi' autorevole
come la si puo' tralasciare :)
*LOL*
-Stefano

 come la si puo' tralasciare :)
E se lo dice il noto analista De Cesari... :) Tu, su che giornale scrivi?
"L'Eco di Capracotta" ha finalmente accettato i tuoi buoi ed i tuoi
asini?... :)
Namib


Se l'eco di capracotta si pregi della autorevolissima firma
o meno, non ci e' dato sapere.... pero' devi ammettere che
su certe tematiche e' una vera autorita'.
Dece', ho pronto il titolo per i tuoi prossimi libri :
cominciamo con un saggio :
"Dimostrare l'indimostrabile : una carriera su usenet."
quindi una bella raccolta :
"I miei primi settantottomila post"
E poi un occhio alla satira :
"Come perdere il lavoro, la faccia, e tutto il resto
per l'impareggiabile soddisfazione di continuare
a fare brutte figure davanti a tutti"