Well, it’s that time of year again when aging radicals, neo-activists, and professional leftwing nut agitators converge where four students were killed amid anti-war chaos at Kent State, in 1970.
It’s a perennial wake for the corpse of the 60’s anti-war movement; they prop the body up in a corner, put a VC flag in its hand, and cry in their beers.
It’s also a platform for whatever current gripe they have about “U.S. imperialism”.
I previously blogged about the festivities here:
http://sfcmac.com/kent-state-the-continuing-debate/
This year, they were joined by Scott Ritter, a disgruntled former U.N. weapons inspector, who used the opportunity to vent against the Iraq War, and opine about the conspicuous absence of squalling jackasses chanting, “Hell no, we won’t go!”
……At one point in his career in the 1990s, he sounded alarms about possible hidden Iraqi weapons. He later said the U.S. government failed to make a case for going to war in Iraq.
Ritter, 46, said in his half-hour talk that he wanted to know why more people didn’t turn out on Sunday afternoon.
While I applaud those who are here today, I have to ask, why isn’t this hillside covered with the citizens of this country?” Ritter asked. Where are the students of Kent State? Where are the citizens of this community? Where are the citizens of Ohio? Where is the media?”
Oh, don’t you worry Scott, the media has tried to do its damndest to prop up the Taliban, Al Qaeda, and every other bomb-totin’ muslim jihadist, while denigrating the brave sacrifice and success of American troops.
As for the citizens of Ohio, maybe we recognize an exploitive stunt when we see one.
Ritter continued with his maudlin speech:
Have we done everything we can to ensure the sacrifice that they are prepared to make is in a cause worthy of the sacrifice?” Ritter said. And I will tell you, no, we have not.”
The rights of American freedom of speech and assembly were trampled on this very spot,” shortly after students buried a copy of the U.S. Constitution near where the memorial stands to protest their government’s actions, Ritter said.
Those protesters were defending the Constitution, he said.
U.S. citizens need to read their Constitution, he said. You cannot defend that which you do not understand.”
……What are we doing to honor this gift, if we cannot understand that their sacrifice screams out for a responsible citizenry, then we have shamed them, shamed them,” Ritter said. The gift that those who died on May 4, 1970, gave us, was the gift of self-introspection.”
The problem is not the president. The problem is not the Congress. The problem is not the judiciary,” he said. The problem is we, the people of the United States of America. We aren’t doing our job, therefore they aren’t doing their job.”
Link: http://www.morningjournal.com/site/index.cfm?newsid=19660719&brd=1699&pag=461&dept_id=46371
Scott Ritter’s statements about the Iraq war are patently false. I’m a retired Soldier, former Intelligence Analyst, and Iraq war veteran. I don’t know why the ‘former UN weapons inspector’ decided to prostitute himself to the anti-war bunch, but that doesn’t make our involvement in Iraq any less of a good cause.
There’s more on Ritter’s imbecility in an article by Michael Weiss:
……Ritter was always doggedly opposed to the military removal of the Iraqi dictator; instead, he advocated the resumption or “normalization” of US-Iraqi relations – despite the Ba’ath’s unequaled record of genocide, foreign aggression, and domestic totalitarianism.
……Since the invasion and occupation of Iraq, Ritter has said in public that he believes life was better under Saddam Hussein and that the current Iraqi “resistance,” consisting of Shia sectarian death squads, Sunni revanchists, and the imperialist beheaders of Al Qaeda, is a “genuine grassroots national liberation movement.” To which he adds: “History will eventually depict as legitimate the efforts of the Iraqi resistance to destabilize and defeat the American occupation forces and their imposed Iraqi collaborationist government.”
Link: http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/scott-ritter-anti-war-problem-child/
Saddam Hussein was a serious threat to U.S. forces in the region. He was a WMD-wielding megalomanic who had chem and bio weapons and proved he was willing to use them with the slaughter of 5000 Kurds at Halabj. He also had ties to terrorist cells, which he provided with money and a safe haven.
BTW: This is an extensive compilation of the discovered WMDs as well as Saddam’s terrorist connections:
http://sfcmac.com/no-lies-about-iraq/
It’s amazing that the reasons for the war are still being debated. Afghanistan is always ommitted from the rhetoric, but nonetheless, just as crucial in the war against Islamofascism. Iraq, as well as Afghanistan, are just two battlefields in this struggle for Western civilization.
Though the WMDs were not the only reason to invade, I’m damned glad we found them before they could be used against us.
Ritter is a tool.
I’ve read the Constitution and was sworn to defend its principles for three decades. I understand a hell of a lot more than Ritter seems to.
The radicals were not protecting the Constitution in any way shape or form; they engaged in terrorism and their actions were far from peaceful.
Instead of glorifying the Vietnam war protestors, he should point out that they rioted, vandalized, and looted for three days before the National Guard was called out to quell the violence. The shootings at Kent State were a self-inflicted tragedy. Had the protests been peaceful and remained so, no one would have been harmed. With freedom of speech comes responsibility. They perverted the concept of freedom of speech to suit their own violence and bitched when they were held accountable.
For Ritter to use “sacrifice” in the same breath with Kent State is a crass insult to the real sacrifice of those who fought the Communist swine in Vietnam. The only “sacrifice” given by the average college student during the Vietnam War, was the time they dedicated to being useful idiots for the Vietcong and NVA; spouting the ‘virtues’ of Communism without ever being subjected to its consequences.
‘Introspection’ was the last thing the nihilists at Kent State had in mind.
I’ll tell you what my job is, Scott. This old Soldier will continue, just as my fellow brothers and sisters in arms, to stand between our freedoms and all of America’s enemies, foreign and domestic.
Whether they be Islamic filth who envision a world Caliphate or anti-war miscreants.
More: