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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group

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To: SirRealist who wrote (36907)	8/13/2002 10:19:52 AM
From: Starowl	Read Replies (3) of 281500

I'm not a supporter of war with Iraq but I can say with some authority that Ritter is a dolt who has spent his adult life stirring up controversy that moves him into the spotlight. He left UNSCOM in a tantrum because he felt the US was not providing him the backing he wanted as an inspector. Ritter has, rightly, been viewed as a loose canon while in the military after he married a Russian "minder" (assumed to be employed by the GRU or KGB) of military arms inspectors and challenging the Gulf War leadership on missile issues during the war when he was a military missile analyst. He lost his clearance over the marriage and left the Marines. He later rejoined the Marines but couldn't get higher than a secret clearance so he left it again. He had some shady dealings with the Israelis which cast strong doubt in the US government about his judgment. He led spirited high profile inspections for UNSCOM which had very little success as they were much too ambitious and clumsily planned and executed. After several years of virtually no meaningful success in these Rambo-like inspections (he liked to refer to himself as an Alpha Dog), he left UNSCOM blaming everyone but himself and then went off on a publicity endeavor criticizing the US administration and leaving former UNSCOM colleagues hanging out to dry. His revelations of US support to UNSCOM violated confidences and brought embarrassment to the US. Then he wrote a self-serving book about his UNSCOM experiences. After that, Ritter completely reversed course and became one of Iraq's big defenders, thereby generating more celebrity for himself. He returned to Iraq like MacArthur to the Philippines to make a documentary on Iraq. He didn't like the first Bush administration, he didn't like the Clinton administration, and now he doesn't like the Iraq policy of the 2nd Bush administration. I think the only thing Ritter really likes is Ritter. Sorry for this note, but once you get behind the fluff of Ritter there isn't much to discover.

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