FLASHBACK "Ritter: US will lose war against Iraq"

Former UN weapons inspector says US does not have military means to take over Baghdad, defeat inevitable.

LISBON - The United States does not have the military means to take over Baghdad and will lose the war against Iraq, former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter said.

"The United States is going to leave Iraq with its tail between its legs, defeated. It is a war we can not win," he told private radio TSF in an interview broadcast here Tuesday evening.

"We do not have the military means to take over Baghdad and for this reason I believe the defeat of the United States in this war is inevitable," he said.

"Every time we confront Iraqi troops we may win some tactical battles, as we did for ten years in Vietnam but we will not be able to win this war, which in my opinion is already lost," Ritter added.

Stiffening Iraqi resistance as US-led forces close in on Baghdad have prompted questions about the strategy to use precision air power and a smaller, fast moving ground force to topple Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

Some military analysts have said there are not enough allied troops in Iraq to take control of Baghdad, where Saddam Hussein's elite troops are said to be concentrated, and that the planning of the war was overly optimistic.

But British Prime Minister Tony Blair told parliament Wednesday the United States and Britain believe they have "sufficient forces" in Iraq and London was not planning to send reinforcements to the country at this stage.

A combination of bad weather and heavy fighting in central Iraq has slowed the advance of coalition troops marching on Baghdad.

Ritter resigned in August 1998 after accusing both Washington and the United Nations of not doing enough to support the weapons inspectors.

Since leaving the UN weapons inspectors team he has become an outspoken critic of US policies towards Iraq.

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There will undoubtedly be massive amounts of documentation uncovered relative to the dirtiness of the Saddamite regime. We will see some of it; some will be lost in the fray; some will be concealed by our own government for 'security' reasons; some will be lied about. The little bit we do see will confirm the worst speculation. I would be particularly delighted to get closer to the truth of Scott Ritter...

There was a poster here ('Zviadist') who acknowledged an acquaintance with the former Marine/proven pedophile and was quite defensive of him. That particular screen name ties back to Georgia (Russia) and Gamzakhurdia apparently...a place full of Islamic problems. The Ritter story is intriguing because:

1. He is clearly sexually compromised, making him a good target of foreign intelligence agencies. He left his first wife for Marina, a Russian working as an English interpreter...from, of all places, Georgia, I believe.

2. His 180 degree switch against the U.S. and to support of Russia's client state, Iraq, has no benign explanation that I can see.

There is the needle-in-the-haystack probability that there is some evidence in the rubble of Iraq concerning Ritter's Benedict Arnold behavior - but only a team of Freeper Arabic speakers would find and reveal it. Unlikely. Still it would be juicy to have the Islamonazi + Georgian +Iraq + Russian money and intelligence trail revealed in all its grimy detail.

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