Fighting terror

Ex-weapons inspector brings antiwar message to USF

TAMPA -- It took only a glance to see that Scott Ritter was preaching to the choir Tuesday night at the University of South Florida.

Inside, past the metal detectors and beefed-up security, people wore pins that read "Peace is patriotic" and held small flags that declared "Just say no to war."

Green Party members sat in the lobby, handing out fliers that pleaded: "Don't invade Iraq."

There were the 26 rounds of applause that interrupted his lecture, two of them standing ovations.

Ritter, a former United Nations weapons inspector in Iraq, passed through USF on a worldwide tour to share his contempt for the Bush administration's push to invade Iraq.

He was paid $6,600 for Tuesday's speech, school officials said.

Before the lecture, the 41-year-old former U.S. Marine sat on a green couch in a small room off the stage, sipping spring water and holding court with several reporters and supporters.

He told them the same thing he later would tell a crowd of nearly 800: Iraq isn't a big enough risk to the world to sacrifice American lives.

Nahla Al-Arian, wife of controversial USF professor Sami Al-Arian, stood at the back of the room, shaking her head in agreement.

During his one-hour speech, Ritter criticized Secretary of State Colin Powell's Feb. 5 presentation to the U.N., saying he didn't make a valid case for war.

He said that people in countries around the world view America as a "rogue superpower," a "bully" that is looking for a fight.

He warned that an invasion of Iraq would prompt more terrorist attacks on the United States in coming years.

He said that Bush's stance has "nothing to do with national security" and "everything to do with domestic politics." He called President Bush "a weak man" who has been influenced by "neoconservatives."

He said that Saddam Hussein is a menace, but the Iraqis are cooperating with inspectors this time around. Give them more time.

But more than anything, Ritter said he didn't want to see soldiers die for a less-than-noble cause.

"They say I'm antimilitary. It's antimilitary to let our girls and boys go off and die in a war that doesn't need to be fought. War is not a game. It will be awful, horrible, horrific."

And he said it's that vision that keeps him globetrotting, shouting that the government's stance is wrong.

"I don't work for the president," Ritter said. "The president works for me. It's not unpatriotic to speak out and question the policies of our government. It's the most patriotic thing you can do."

The only tense moment of the evening came when a man called Ritter a "child molester," referring to his two arrests in 2001 on charges of trying to arrange sexual encounters with a teenage girl in what turned out to be an Internet sting.

The charges later were dropped, the case sealed by a judge. Ritter claimed Tuesday, as he has before, that the news of his arrests were leaked to silence him.

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