HW30B: Keene State College Citizenship Symposium

Citizen Soldiers and Global Warriors

On Thursday, November 8, at the Keene State College Citizenship Symposium there was a speech entitled, “Citizen Soldiers and Global Warriors.” The speech was done by Scott Ritter who is a former UN weapons inspector and seemed to be a very knowledgeable man. His speech started off by taking the words of the title piece by piece and defining them. He started with “citizen soldiers.” Scott believed that to be a citizen soldier we must strive for what we believe in and full fill the elements listed to us in the constitution. He says we have failed to live up to the constitution and “we call ourselves citizens but we don't function as citizens.” during the coarse of the speech the obvious topic came up of the war in Iraq. Ritter was not afraid to admit that the war in Iraq is illegitimate and it is our fault as citizen soldiers at home. Next came the issue of what the U.S. Should do now and if we are to stay in Iraq or leave. Ritter said that the world has lost trust in Americans and we need to stop telling others how to live their lives. I believe he received the largest applause of the night when he stated, “ We are the problem not the solution, bring the troops home.”