All due respect, Scott, I’m quite impressed with your knowledge, but where were you when the Bush administration was planning Shock & Awe, and when the Iraq Study Group was planning a new direction?  If you met with the administration and they ignored you, then perhaps their agenda transcended everything tribal and religious in the Mid-East.  What do you know about that?  If you’re not condescending to the American people, and I think you might be, you had at the least the moral responsibility to find a way to preach to the Bush Administration with your Iraq lesson before the invasion.  Americans can’t be authorities on every subject; many of them have the daunting task of providing for, and raising, their children and therefore, they leave the job of making judicial decisions about running the country up to the experts and to their elected officials.  That’s the way it’s supposed to work.  And most Americans trust that it will work.  In this case, sadly, it didn’t.  Furthermore, I seem to recall that most Americans had misgivings about our decision to invade Iraq, indicating that Americans are not as uniformed as you might think.  Perhaps their greatest fault is that they trusted their government and the 2006 election proved they realized they made that mistake.  The rising tide of opposition to the war surge is yet more evidence.
I suggest that you, and other experts in foreign relations and religious/tribal societies make themselves more readily available (that’s an understatement) to the government when war action is being planned.  If plans are secret, then there’s nothing you, other experts and Americans can do to stop them.  By the way, can we now assume that you are, or will be, in touch with Bush about an attack on Iran?

Scott,

This is an excellent article, expanding upon the quiz you proposed for Americans in your talk with Robert Scheer at the Santa Monica Public Library in February. Of course, the great majority of Americans (and our political leaders, including most prominently our Decider) would fail your quiz.

A friend of mine in the State Department once wryly observed that in Washington, the more important the decision, the less expert opinion is involved in its making. Nonetheless, for all Americans, the take-home lesson from your quiz should be that creating a politically stable Iraq is a mission that we simply lack the competency to accomplish (assuming the goal is at all achievable). Ultimately, the Iraqis will need to sort things out amongst themselves.

I would like to make a linguistic observation. The concept of taqlid in Islamic jurisprudence which you mention at p.3 does not mean “community consensus” (which is ijma’ in Arabic). Taqlid is more at “imitation,” that is, accepting the authority of another’s opinion, without thinking things through for oneself. This concept is especially important in Shi’i Islam, in which a marja’ (such as the grand ayatollahs you mentioned) is more properly termed a marja’ taqlid ("source of imitation").

Well Scott...right on!
My friends are all a twitter now that the Dems have “control”. I’m not because I see them as “limp dicks and weak sisters”.  Your term impotent is correct!

The true failing is soundly with my fellow citizens as you so rightly point out!

Hillary is a hawk and worse, a liar.  She will not be a “new” voice, but more of the same crap!  I trust her...NOT.

I hope in our dire situation a true leader emerges...some one with intelligence and an operational brain who sees the big picture.

Keep fighting, fight like hell.

The history lesson is interesting and informative but unnecessary to an intelligent decision on how to proceed in Iraq. It is enough to know that President Bush intentionally and continuously lied to us to start a completely unnecessary and disastrous war in Iraq. There were no weapons of mass destruction. Iraq was not an imminent threat. Saddam Hussein was not involved at all with 9/11. The Bush administration defied the United Nations, forced out the weapons inspectors, ignored reliable intelligence, twisted cherry picked and manufactured their own intelligence and enacted a campaign of lies and fear to sway America to preemptively invade a sovereign nation. The result has been the death of 3,200 brave young American soldiers and tens of thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians. We have also squandered 500 billion dollars and the good name and reputation of the United States. The solution is obvious. We must immediately end the unlawful occupation, apologize to the world, and impeach and prosecute those responsible.

Ritter’s depth in understanding of Middle Eastern culture and history is impressive. He understands as well that foreign intervention is only destructive to its indigenous evolution. Where he draws the line, mistakenly in my opinion, is to leave out the severely distorting intervention of false flag terrorism, so frequently traceable to CIA, MI-6 and Mossad. Until this most cynically lethal weapon of choice, employed to destabilize and terrorize, is exposed and deposed, Middle Eastern geopolitics will never be understood clearly and accurately.

Amen, amen, amen.  I did not know the details of the rise of Wahhabism, but it has been clear to me that our presence in Iraq is only heating up the civil war.  My amens are primarily directed at Ritter’s characterization of Congress and our political representatives taking action or being fearful of taking action based on the political ramification rather than what is the right thing to do.  We need to get out. 

We’ve broke Iraq and when the dust starts to settle; we better be committed to providing whatever non-military assistance we can.

Um, what’s the big mystery, Scott? There’s oil in the ground underneath Iraq. We’re really not splitting the atom, here, maybe a couple long-chain hydrocarbon molecules or whatever, but not the atom itself, well, Iran would like to, but at issue is who controls the oilfields etc. This is why it’s SO important that we be on a balls-out
national energy conservation program. As much as the tattered remains of the GOP might hate to admit it, it is ‘morning in america’, in terms of taking a good hard look at energy and how the whole miserable dynamic plays out. So, the ‘smart money’ is on becoming energy independent, or at least oil-independent, as we’ll probably always need some type of salable fuel-stuff of some kind, but there’s no law saying we have to let Halliburton lead the country to war anymore.
Standard Oil’s idiot stepchildren have about run our country into the ground, time to have em out of Washington, ‘mystery’ solved, there. The science is there to do this thing, what’s missing is the public interest and collective willpower to kiss off the oil industry at large, and, if necessary, go a little ‘retro’ for a while. Shitties, Crappies, who cares-ies, at the end of the day it’s their country, and our troops are in it based on the decision to wage a war of choice based on sunshine stories. I speak in favor of impeachment.

I consider myself better informed than most non-Muslims about the history if Islam, having read two books (written by pro-Islamic scholars) on the religion. However, I didn’t know half of what Ritter said, especially about the rout of the Wahhabis. Fascinating! Gives me more respect for Ritter, and I had a lot to begin with.

America is SO screwed in Iraq! There is no way it can turn out well, and the abysmal ignorance of those who led it into the quicksand has only compounded the disaster. Get ready, Americans. Some bad things are going to happen. I don’t know what they’ll be, but you don’t muck up this massively without consequences.

We could put 200,000 more troops in Iraq and stay for fifty years. It would do no good. We are Infidels and the one thing both the Shiites and Sunni agree on is the Koran calls for our destruction.

Our Arrogance amazes me. There are buildings in that part of the world that are thre times older than this country.

As a youth of about 16 or so, when in lively ‘debates’ with my mother, they often resolved themselves by her sarcastically saying, “Paul, you just think you know everything, don’t you?”

Maybe it was the new information she hadn’t heard before, or perhaps my attitude, but I’ve never made that claim in my life.

When in college for the first time, studying geology under Dr. John Funkhouser in 1967, he made a memorable statement about information. We found it unbelievable at the time, but 174 college credits & 40+ years later I now know he was absolutely correct (just as he was about his predictions about the threat of global warming & oil reaching a peak).

What he said was that the amount of information about geology currently (1967) would likely only cover one wall of the room we were in, but by the time we reached the age he was it would be a stack of books the height of the world’s tallest building. Whether this is now true, I don’t know, but this is exactly the point I’m trying to make.

Through education, study, contemplation, and observation I’ve come to the following conclusions:

1) When I stop constantly seeking, correlating, and assimilating new information I’ve died, but just haven’t fallen down yet.

2) Until I have time to research & consider, ‘perhaps’ is a better position to take than a flat ‘yes’ or ‘no’. At some time I must act on what I’ve learned, however, or it was just a passing of time rather than making a positive contribution toward this world.

3) Intelligence should not be automatically assumed by level of education, position in society, or size of fortune, nor should superiority.

4) In this complicated world those who claim to know all about a subject have let their egos thwart their learning.

5) Always question the financial motivations of athority figures.

6) Political appointees, without expertise, endanger us all. 

Thankyou very much, Scott Ritter, for your enlightening quiz/article about the problems we really face in Iraq. After reading it I freely admit my ignorance of what makes that culture/country ‘tick’, but I’m learning more every day.

Keep up the noble effort. I’ll pay attention.

pmsinva2 at hotmail dot com

Good article, showing our profound ignorance of, and difficult nature of the complexities involved.

Well our problems are many-fold. The vast majority of Americans struggle all-day to make a living, then crash in front of the TV watching Monday night football, and American Idol. That would be fine if we didn’t presume to be telling the world how to operate, but our national character seems to be that the are always right. Add to that the near takeover of our politics by a small click of religiously motivated individuals, and of the Main Stream Media, by a small number of very wealthy individual, and you have a recipe for trouble.

I was pretty much just like Benjamin, and figured our leadership crisis would resilve itself. Only within the past year, many of us have realized that won’t happen without a lot of citizens taking action. I think it is happening, but it remains to be seen what the outcome will be.

I’m happy to see Scott Ritter is back.  This adminstration tried to nail him to the cross.  But just like the Wilsons the truth will set you free.  Scott, I always believed you.  From the very beginning I didn’t believe this administration. Just keep up the good work.

There is Jihad propaganda on the internet.

The Jihadists are on a long term campaign to recruit the moderate Islamic world to THEIR viewpoint of an imperialistic, colonialist West waging war on Islam.

The radical Muslim hate for OUR COUNTRY and the forming of terrorist groups is NOT the result of our support for Israel. The Muslim Brotherhood, the forefather of Hamas and Al-Qaida was founded in 1928.

Muslims have hated us for decades and have plotted to attack us here in America for years. (ie. bombing of the twin towers in 1993).

But unfortunately facts are impotent when it comes to emotions, or politics.

The global war these Islamofascists are waging is NOT our fault!

Some say their hatred is because we invaded Iraq for the oil there, they state that the administration lied about WMD under Saddam’s reign. Given Saddam’s history of WMD development and use, given his successful attempts to obstruct inspection had even President Clinton assuming WMD existed in 1998. The records of Saddam’s deeds left no choice. Many nations, and members of both parties in Congress believed he had the WMD’s.

Some say our intelligence was faulty. But tell me what intelligence evidence then could have convinced any RESPONSIBLE President that Saddam had no WMD?!

I DO NOT agree with anyone who blames America for the rise in Islamofascism or radical Muslims’ violent and cruel actions or their hate-filled propaganda.

They have offered us WAR! Not conversion! And they declared it explosively and deadly in in Pennsylvania, Washington, and New York.

We the people, of the United States of America

SHALL STAND for FREEDOM, LIBERTY and JUSTICE

FOR ALL!

If “idiot america” is not advancing itself to smart america, then the people who constitute america, would continue to be used up as idiots by warmongers and ruling classes.

Few listened to Ritter before the iraq invasion. Hope there are more listen to him before the iran invasion.

Thanks Scott.

Oh, dear, we’re sorry, we po’ ign’ant ‘Merikans.

Sorry if we haven’t read an history of Iraqi antagonisms lately.

Sorry if our eyes glaze over when we watch the Tube after our 10-hour work day, trying to get a grip on what’s going on.

Sorry if we toss aside our ‘local’ just-another-Gannett-owned newspaper after gazing at the comics because we’ve got another meeting with the boss.

Sorry if we don’t have college-degree analytical skills and are tired of pundits of all stripes.

Sorry if we laugh really, really hard at your call to become ‘politically engaged’ in a farce towards which any attention paid simply legitimizes those who wield the power over us.

Sorry if we didn’t vote in the last election because what the crap do we know but the crap everyone else knows?

Sorry if we keep our mouths shut at bars parties work gatherings because it’s all a complicated mess of hideous horseshit.

Sorry if we prefer to stay home minding our own business instead of wielding dumb-ass signs in front of TV cameras and NSA spies.

Sorry Scott if we’re not as smart and concerned as you are.

You know, my daughter is in the military and I have family from wayyy back that has fought for and defended this country. But I have never, and I mean NEVER saw people who were supposed to be defending this country, and which IS the Constitution, spit on and curse their own people because they wanted the war stopped and the killing of our own people stopped. It made me stop and think: WHAT ARE THESE PEOPLE SUPPORTING AND DEFENDING??? It’s not my rights, they don’t want me to have any; they want THEIR rights to screw me over business wise and get away with no accountability, for their intrusive, abusive, and criminal actions. They want to stomp out my voice; my right to free speech seems to be nothing to them if it gets in their way and what THEY want. They are spoiled rotten and they don’t deserve to have rights if they are not going to defend them for the rest of Americans. Simply put, THAT’S WHAT WE HAVE ALWAYS HAD TO DEFEND. OUR DEMOCRACY. I have heard the hot-heads berate and demean the sacred piece of paper that made this country the great Country it used to be. Now half of our people would sell the rest of us for a dollar a piece and call it a good bottome line. Nothing personal. The HELL it isn’t personal...when you’re messing with my people, my country, and both of their futures, you’re messing with the wrong idiot. No matter what I have to do, I WILL defend my country and GOD help the brainless, crooked idiots that get in my way. We’ll just see who loves this country the most. Have a great day.

Dear Mr. Ritter,

America is absolutely no idiot. Only Bush/Cheney administration was. Why ? because they used all idiots in his criminal, immoral government. All of its policies were severely hemorrhaged and awfully deformed from top down to bottom.

Scott, you’ve become a real hero to me.  I read your articles and watch your online videos whenever I find them.  I used to be ‘moderate’ and mildly prowar, and I used to suspect you were some weird ‘fringe’ element, because the MSM said so.  I gave Bush the benefit of the doubt on WMD intel and assumed his intentions were good.  I bought the line that getting rid of the dictator would be a gift to Iraqis, not knowing about Iraqi history, just like the idiot you describe.  Since then, I’ve studied everything related to the war on the web, from all over the political spectrum.  You’re just right on everything, as far as I can tell.  And if there’s anybody suited to calling us idiots, it’s you, because you’re a regular down-to-earth guy.  If some Ivy League highbrow did it, the public would just feel insulted and contemptuous, if they even cared.  (Note: I went to an Ivy League school myself.) By the way, I honestly think you’re smarter (or more honest) than 99% of the Ivy League establishment types who got us into this mess.  The supposedly ‘liberal’ Washington Post is still calling the war critics ‘defeatists’.  To hell with them.  I cancelled my subscription long ago.  The entire establishment has drunk the imperial kool-aid.  And they simply ignore the public.