February 28, 2006 7:47 PM

HAVE DU WILL TRAVEL

‘I Love DU!’

Former U.N. Weapons Inspector Scott Ritter Discusses DU Weaponry

AUSTIN — Scott Ritter, former U.N. weapons inspector during most of the Clinton Administration from 1991 to 1998, unapologetically said that he looked at the use of DU weapons from the standpoint of a U.S. marine in the heat of battle.

”You put me in charge of a couple hundred marines, and we’re dug in and a T80 battle tank comes over. I don’t want to fight an equal fight. I don’t want him anywhere close to me. I’m going to open up a 120 millimeter battletank gun with continued depleted uranium rounds that will carve up that tank like a hot knife through butter and kill everyone inside before they can even come close to me,” said Ritter, who, as a Marine, served as a ballistic missile advisor to Gen. Norman Schwartzkopf during the first Gulf War.

“I love DU!” he added during a talk at the St. Andrews Presbyterian Church sanctuary in Austin last Saturday. ”I want to be able to use it on my 20 millimeter Bushmaster, on my LAB25, so it’ll cut through T62 tanks. Why? I don’t want an equal fight, ladies and gentlemen. You send me to war, and I’ll kill the enemy. I’m going to slaughter them! I’m going to eviscerate them! I’m going to annihilate them! And I’m going to do it in a way that brings all my marines home or at least as many of them as I can. THAT’S-MY-JOB! My job is to wage war, not make the world lovey dovey. You click the “on” switch on, it’s going on, and I’m going to them, and you better give me the weapons to do the job.

”And you better understand that when you give me those weapons, and I use those weapons, there are repercussions. When I pull that trigger on a DU weapon I’m creating conditions that are harmful to American service members. I’m creating conditions that are harmful to innocent civilians that have to live in that area. If you don’t want that, don’t send me to war.”