Former UN Weapons Inspector Charges Bush Launched Iraq War to Pursue Agenda of 'Global Hegemony'

Interview with Scott Ritter, former U.S. Marine and U.N. weapons inspector, conducted by Scott Harris

As violence continued to consume U.S.-occupied Iraq, President Bush addressed the nation on Sept. 7 to explain his administration's policies there and request $87 billion for the pacification and reconstruction of both Iraq and Afghanistan. Although the president conspicuously omitted any mention of the U.S. failure to capture Osama bin Laden or to locate any of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction used by his administration to justify its war, he maintained that Iraq was now the central front in the war against terrorism. As he has many times before, the president linked the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks against the U.S. to the toppled regime of Saddam Hussein, despite the lack of any evidence connecting Iraq with the al Qaeda network.

Acknowledging the fact that his administration's "go it alone" approach was not working, Bush also announced a new initiative to ask for soldiers and money from United Nations member states to stabilize Iraq.

Scott Ritter is a former Marine intelligence officer and U.N. weapons inspector who served in Iraq for seven years before resigning in 1998. In the months before the U.S. invasion, Ritter had publicly challenged the Bush administration's contention that Baghdad's weapons systems posed a grave risk to the U.S and necessitated a war. Between The Lines' Scott Harris spoke with Scott Ritter about the Bush administration's justification for war and the U.S. occupation of Iraq detailed in his new book titled, "Frontier Justice, Weapons of Mass Destruction and the Bushwhacking of America," published by Context Books.

Related links:

* "A Weapons Cache We'll Never See," by Scott Ritter, New York Times, Aug. 25, 2003

* "Iraqmire: Bush Gets Desperate," by David Corn, The Nation editor, Sept. 8, 2003

* "EPIC Accountability Campaign: Urge Your Members of Congress to Support a Full Investigation," Resources to hold your government accountable for costly military campaigns, from the Education for Peace in Iraq Center

* "Facing the Truth About Iraq," by James Carroll, Boston Globe, Sept. 2, 2003

* Occupation Watch at www.occupationwatch.org

* Bring Them Home Now campaign at www.bringthemhomenow.org

* Military Families Speak Out at www.mfso.org

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