Newsflash:  Your country doesn’t give a rat’s ass about you or your issues. Doesn’t matter if you’ve lost a child in a war. Your mother in a flood. Or an uncle in a secret prison. Doesn’t matter if you don’t like to be spied on. Lied to. Kidnapped. Preached to. Misdiagnosed. Or paid off.  You are an insignificant spec in the master plan. Fact is, you don’t matter. And it’s time to accept it and move on. We had a good run. The only thing lingering is the smell of marketing. There will be pictures later. Video to come. Invisible words. All too late. Like delivering antibiotics to a morgue. We have grown beyond proof. Beyond strength. Our strongest have fallen. Fatally torn between survival and paradise. Look at the shark. The shark remains unchanged in 400 million years. Emotion is an evolutionary no-no. Caring is supremely inefficient. Look at people from a tower. They look like ants. Why? Because they are. It is only at the microscopic level that we see the differences. The microscopic level of say, a polaroid snapshot at a birthday party. At this level, something becomes apparent to the almost naked eye. Even scientists can see it. It’s a quality beyond description. And let it be noted. It is the acknowledgement of all that is described above, yet still knowing this is the best and only train to be on.  We call it “hope.” And while it may one day prove to be evolutionary suicide, given the choice between hope and mere survival, I take hope. I can only assume the shark has no idea what it’s missing.

Look. We all appreciate your thoughtful investigation of the history of the middle east, not to mention your service in pulling off the covers during the IAEA inspection process in Iraq. Yours is a decent tutorial, as far as it goes. However there is a problem here with your ego and your basic approach to your educational “product.”

Strange as it may seem, you are not likely to gain a wide audience by calling your target audience idiots up front. Dig? That’s not generally a good way to nurture interest in a very important subject.

I have read the same information you (Scott Ritter) have read on the subject of the ME, and then some, and I am actually an educator. What I get from your article is a bit of intellectual muscle flexing in the mirror, which probably gets you off, but doesn’t really add contribute significantly to the cause of general eductation.

In fact, your approach would likely alienate those who had a desire and natural curiosity to really learn.

The needs of this country will not benefit ultimately from your self-selected service as history’s Drill Instructor.

Richard Mann

Scott Ritter, you are no doubt a smart guy. However you need to take your reading glasses off. Why should the American people have to decipher the intricacies of Iraqi culture? When the blazing point is that the rogue politicians and their puppet military are illegally occupying a sovereign country half way around the world, murdering its people, That is what it is called when someone takes the life of an innocent person. What the people of Iraq do, how they live, how they choose to use their resources is and always has been their business. What the American people should be pursuing with the utmost passion and expertise is getting this so-called president and his band of warlocks into an international war crimes court. America, as you are well aware, has wreaked pain and suffering on the people of Iraq for many years; this has become a shame that will last as far as our tormented future will reach. This consistency will not change, not with your little quiz and not with any tactical strategy.

Very interesting article ,but i think the differences between the sunni and shia sects are not as extreme as you suppose . Lots of sunni and shia families are related and intermarried. Yes ,there has been an increase in saudi fuelled hate ,but the average muslim will still say that we all worship one god an muhammed is his prophet.
  I am am asunni woman happily married to a shia man with full approval from our families.we are not unusual.

I must humbly applaud your condensation of the history of faction of Islam.

There is more information in this essay than all the mass media cubed.  I want to thank you for solidifying my base of why it was a mistake to go to Baghdad.

The saddest part is that humankind cant move behind these centuries of conflict. 

I have left the US, no longer drive cars and try to live a simple clean life.  But the poison of the conflict can not be outrun.

I am going to email my friends and family and ask them to read this link.  I figure if I can chain it and convince more to educate them selves perhaps we can change things together one person at a time.

Deep Bow of respect Mister Scott Ritter.

The problem with the people in the U.S. is their lack of knowledge of history and civics. Most of the citizens of the U.S. do not know how democracy came into existence and none know how governments ( municipal, county , state or federal ) operate. Without knowledge of the past struggles, from ancient to the present, people of Mesopotamia, Greece, Egypt, Roman and Europe efforts to establish governments of inclusion, the people of the U.S. have no knowledge for comparison of what politicians are proposing to them. So, the majority of citizens sort of decide which political party they LIKE and settle for that party"s proposal. The rest do not pay any attention to the political condition. When the voters are blind the politicians become playful. If the citizens of the U.S. do not become aware soon, the end of their democracy is over. Democracy is unstable and difficult to maintain. The weak or uncaring will forsake their democracy to more stable and authoritarian government.

Mr Ritter got quite few issues, if not most of the historical facts of the Ahlus-Sunnah versus Shia (Ahlul Bayt) conflict correct.  One thing he did not get correct is the concept of “Taqlid”.  Taqlid is actually the concept of “blind following,  The word in Arabic come from the connotation of putting something around someones neck.  In Arabic, taqlīd is a verbal noun based on the verb qallada, which literally means ‘to place something (e.g. a necklace or medal) around the neck’. The person who performs the action is called a muqallid. By extension, it means ‘to award or confer an honor or authority’ to someone.

The concept he is searching for to properly describe consensus is “Ijma”. 

Ijmāʿ (إجماع)is an Arabic term referring ideally to the consensus of the ummah (the community of Muslims, or followers of Islam). In reality, ijma referred only to the consensus of traditional Islamic scholars (Arabic ulema) on particular points of Islamic law .

The hadith of Muhammad which states that “My community will never agree upon an error” is often cited as support for the validity of ijma. Sunni Muslims regard ijma as the third fundamental source of Sharia law, after the divine revelation of the Qur’an, the prophetic practice or Sunnah. The analogical reasoning or qiyas is described as fourth source in Sunni Islam, whereas Shi’a Islam uses ‘aql (intellect). Many conservative Muslim writers have claimed that the use of ijma’ makes Islamic law compatible with democracy.

Ijtihad (Arabic اجتهاد)is a technical term of Islamic law that describes the process of making a legal decision by independent interpretation of the legal sources, the Qur’an and the Sunnah. The opposite of ijtihad is taqlid, Arabic for “imitation”. A person who applies ijtihad is called a mujtahid, and traditionally had to be a scholar of Islamic law, an Islamic lawyer or alim.

To become a mujathid in theological terms is similar to having a doctorate in divinity in Islamic Kalam, or similar to reaching the status of a high or supreme court judge in legal terms.

Obviously Mr Ritter spent considerable tiem and effort attempting to gain and transmit critical information.  He did so in rather fine fashion for the most part.  But just a once drop of filth corrupts a pusre glass of water, so to does one instance of falsehood corrupt what would other be truth.  Mr Ritter should revise his article to correctly address the issue of “ijma” as opposed to incorrectly citing “taqlid”.

That’s about one of the most accurate depictions of the true scenario in Iraq that’s been told in a while. And as criminally negligent as the U.S. has been the house of Saud is also complicit. As we all know, the entire Bush clan is directly connected to the aristocracy controlling Saudi Arabia, as well as their consigliere, James Baker. Not to mention that the Bushies are also quite chummy with the Bin Laden family. Also, weren’t the majority of the hi-jackers on 9/11 from Saudi? Hmm….Makes you wonder who’s really loyal to whom?

Congress can do the right thing by exposing Bush’s biggest crime and the resulting disintegration of the Bush Cabal would be swift; Congress does run the risk of suffering a fatal wound since it might strengthen a multiple party system.

We have a system of dependents, co-dependents, and enablers, all trying to survive.

The crime was detailed in an article, “Is it high treason or just a simple case of dereliction of duty?” that came out in print in Crawford, TX, in The Lone Star Iconoclast.

Maybe Scott can, through his contacts, add more to the story.

Congress can do the right thing by exposing Bush’s biggest crime and the resulting disintegration of the Bush Cabal would be swift; Congress does run the risk of suffering a fatal wound since it might strengthen a multiple party system.

We have a system of dependents, co-dependents, and enablers, all trying to survive.

The crime was detailed in an article, “Is it high treason or just a simple case of dereliction of duty?” that came out in print in Crawford, TX, in The Lone Star Iconoclast and is available online at

http://www.lonestaricon.com/absolutenm/anmviewer.asp?a=1043&z=103

Maybe Scott can, through his contacts, add more to the story.

I thought this article was brilliantly incisive and absolutely on the right track.  I It is incredible to me how blithely American policy-makers ignored any and all evidence of how Arabs and Muslims interact with each other. 
That said, I’d like to point out that the article will make more of an impact if it eliminates orthographical and grammatical mistakes, such as using the word “tenants” (meaning people who occupy rented space in a building) instead of the correct “tenets” (basic principles of a belief), or “yet alone” instead of “let alone”.  Minor points, but I expect more of someone so obviously capable of writing blisteringly (and appropriately) critical pieces of American incompetence.

As usual is boils down to, to paraphrase Blaise Pascal, “Men never go about evil so merrily as when they do it in the name of religion.” 

Since they have been at this for over a thousand years, who are we to interfere in their national sport.  I really think we need to get out of the business of being the moral conscience of the world and mind our own business, especially since our motives are not pure!

I’m still for impeachment.

It is so refreshing to read something that even attempts to address the root of the problem. As I wait and listen to the endless debate by American politicians, I’m overwhelmed by the feeling that none of these people have a clue what the consequences of their proposed course of actions will have. I have not been given one reason to believe that anyone in Washington DC understands the dilemma in Iraq or what fuels it. Simply understanding that the sociopolitical and religious implications of Iraq’s history are as complicated as you just outlined, clearly shows that we do not know what we are doing there. We do not have an answer to fix these problems, and occupying a nation with widespread violence, not to mention adding to their death toll for no good reason, is not an acceptable answer. Thank you for shedding light on this subject, and sharing the news with people that you cannot fix a problem if you don’t know what the problem is to begin with!

Mr. Ritter, thank you very much for this valuable historical discussion.  It is difficult to find easily digestible information which can enable the average American to rise above the disinformation which characterizes most of the reports we receive from the journalistic media.  I hope that you will continue to develop materials like this.  I will do what I can to see that it is placed in front of a wider audience.

WOW, I will have to re-read this a couple more times to digest all the info. Thank you for all you have done against these incredible odds.  There are people listening, please keep it up.  Hey people, send this story to those who don’t get it.  If they don’t listen to the facts, to bad.  Later you can say, “I hate to say I told you so, but… I told you so”

I would fail an Iraqi culture test but I can tell when our country is in trouble.  What Bush started and continues to perpetrate upon the Iraqi people is criminal.  What he has done and is doing to our service people is obscene.  The congress, in my opinion, is a bunch of sniveling cowards.  They have made politics a profession rather than a calling.  Survive at all costs is what they live by.  Sadly, I thought the dems would change this sickening situation with Iraq and Bush and his bunch.  All they’ve done is pat themselves on the back for passing legislation that will be vetoed and/or ignored through signing statements.  The congress would do well to understand that with this guy Bush who is so full of ego and machismo that it will take the 2x4 principle to get him off the dime.  Tough is as tough does to quote a movie favorite of mine (well, a quote kinda).  Her majesty Ms. Pelosi has seen fit to decide for all of the American people that impeachment is “off the table” when a large majority of the people think he sucks, he’s a liar, a draftdodger, deserter, war monger, middle class killer and an election rigging keg king.  If the demos lay back and don’t show their backbone and use that 2x4 up side the shrub’s head, the dog in the whitehouse is gonna bite them time and time again.

Mr Ritter, please try logical consistency:

You are on record declaring that the invasion of Iraq 2003 is comparable to Nazi invasion of Poland 1939, i.e. a warcrime of aggression, the supreme international crime by Nuremburg standards, etc.

Would you say the Nazi Wehrmacht ‘honored’ all Germans by being Hitler’s main tool in perpetrating that crime?

Likewise, why will you not be honest and fairly say that the people serving USA to attack and occupy Iraq do not honor anyone, but from Bush on down are an eternal disgrace upon humanity - and every last one these warcriminal dreck deserves punishment as such? Or do you think they should get a ‘free pass’ because of USAn racial superiority over German warcriminals?

Now you talk of “an electorate ... dissatisfied with the progress of the war in Iraq” - wow, what sophistry! No, people voted against Republican Warcrims so as to STOP THE DISGUSTING BARBARIC FUCKING WAR, not to make it ‘succeed’ by enabling Democrat Warcrims - can’t you get that through your ivory dome? Have you been supping with that twisted bitch Clintona? Sounds like some of her prevaricating shit has rubbed off on you, and it stinks, abominably.

“there is civil unrest in Iraq today, with Iraqi-on-Iraqi violence tearing that country apart” - oh, really, wise oracle of New Jersey? So the squabblesome Iraqis have self-imploded their own society, right? Like when did the illegal Occupation suddenly magically end? Maybe I blinked and missed that newsflash! Or maybe this is just more Pentagon-typical ‘blame the victim’ BS war propaganda being churned out by one of their hired mouthpieces?

Imagine that propaganda soundbyte coming from a Nazi apparatchik in 1942, whining about the Polish Resistance so as to justify the Reich’s ferocious reprisal attacks on the whole population - pretty twisted morals, eh?

Pick a side man - for justice or injustice - if you respect international law and the Iraqis have a perfect right to resist the invader/occupier, proclaim support for the just cause of the Iraqi Resistance, instead of continuing to support the Oil Pirate Army in its ongoing crimes!

If you want to serve any useful function in waking-up your fellow countrymen to NON-CRIMINAL politics, you’d want to hurry and shake that Latrine Corpse doublespeak brainwash out of your head, and decide whose water-carrying boy you are, or are not, going to be - otherwise, Semper Faeces, buddy!

And BTW, Mr Ritter, no people in the world is LESS QUALIFIED to speak on the subject of Iraq than GODDAMNED US WARCRIMINALS who are doing their utmost to utterly destroy that country and its people! How about you born-again bastards just STFU about managing the affairs of other nations until such times as you succeed in installing a democracy in your own country, as opposed to the current perverse joke of bipartisan ImperioCapitalist Military Dictatorshit.

Unity and Victory to the Heroic Iraqi Resistance!!
Eternal Defeat and shame to skYanki Warcriminals!!

Thanks very much for your lesson on the evolution of the Muslim Faith. I knew some of what you so clearly pointed out but in truth would have failed your quiz.

The United States and indeed all first world countries used to have ‘state departments’ that contained learned men/women that understood the intricacies of their particular assignments. An undersecretary for mid east affairs was certainly expected to understand all that pertained to the mid east including the history and subtleties of the area. Under the Bush regime our state department has been relegated to the back burner and all power shifted to the office of the vice president and the pentagon. After all, reasoned the neo cons, if we are going to take over the world why will we need knowledge or diplomacy? Anything that the state department attempted to advise the Bush neo cons on concerning the tinder box that is Iraq and the mid east was disregarded.

Now that the quagmire has been created in Iraq and the neo cons are in semi panic mode it appears that a little influence is being restored to our state department, but Condi has never been given the level of power required to make deals and my personnal opinion is that she would be incompetent to carry off any meaningfull success even if she had the opportunity. As Donald Trump stated so bluntly recently in a suprising interview on CNN, Condi is good at flying hither and yon, doing photo ops with various foreign leaders but she has yet to make a deal. I agree with Trump. We once had a knowledgeable and functioning state department but now we have a state department staffed by ex oil execs and others loyal to the bushies. Untill our state department is restored and restocked with knowledgeable people we are flying blind.

I totally agree with your observations on the ignorance of most of our leaders and population on the ignorance of mid east affairs. Not only do they not understand the mid east they do not even understand the nature of the powers and limitations of the United States. Their stupidity and arrogance have placed us on a certain path to disaster. Americans as a group seem to believe that only military power is important and continually fail to realise that the other two legs that all countries stand on are economics and diplomacy. Neo cons have totally failed to grasp these concepts.

“Rep. Silvestre Reyes, the newly appointed chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, infamously failed a pop quiz in which journalist Jeff Stein asked him to differentiate between Sunni and Shiite.  Reyes has become the poster boy for congressional stupidity, but in truth he is not alone.  Very few of his colleagues could pass the test, truth be told.”

Reyes flunked the test but, I’m sure most of the Senate, the House of Representatives and the Commander-In-Chief would flunk as well.  But the bigger question is whether they cared; were they ever interested in obtaining an anthropological analysis of the Iraq culture.

Of course not, Western arrogance towards other societies, compounded by the creed that “might is right” and the notion that the U.S. is entitled to other countries resources were the only motivating factors.

It was never necessary to think about the outcome, because in the over-confident minds of those who planned the invasion, they could see nothing except a treasure chest of never ending dollar bills.  This same smug mentality, never considered a military loss, after all, this was going to be a “cakewalk”—-we’d overthrow the regime; install a puppet government, suppress a “willing” population, and then extract every last drop of oil—-after all, Bush did say in his SOTU that we are “addicted” to oil and, I don’t think ExxonMobil will be headed to rehab any time soon. 

Ritter assumes too much, he thinks that those in power were too dismissive of historical facts; but it wasn’t that they were indifferent to the historical significance, of Islamic Fundamentalism, THEY JUST DIDN’T CARE. 

Colonialists are NOT anthropologists NOR historians, they are economic expansionists who dictate events through military domination.

So the notion that the Iraq invasion was doomed from the start; was never a consideration; especially if those in power knew with certainty that there were NO LONGER WMDS in Iraq.

WTF? If they stop the war on Iraq NOW, the DEMs’d be re/elected in landslides in both executive and legislative branchs! But that wouldn’t keep sufficient troops there guard The OIL, would it?

Scott, this is one of the best essays I’ve read about the fiasco that is Iraq. You distil the essence, history and the present realities into four pages. As a writer Bob Fisk I admire, but he takes a tad longer to arrive at similar conclusions. If politicians had your courage, The Imbecile and his MIC and Beltway enablers would have been carpeted and drummed out of service some time ago.
Long may you run, sir, in your noble quest to speak truth to power, as well as to we the people.
When we behave like fools by blindly following an idiot Decider-in-Chief we need people of your integrity to tell us so.
Thank You.

Now that was about the most clear description of what’s going on in Iraq that I’ve seen printed. For not only is America’s hands dirty with the blood of Iraqiis, the house of Saud is equally complicit. And let’s guess who is in bed with Saudi Arabia. Hmm…. Wouldn’t that be the entire Bush family, along with their consigliere, Jim Baker? Also, weren’t the majority of the hijackers involved in the atrocities of 9/11 from Saudi Arabia? It seems the further you delve into searching out answers regarding this “shock and awe” conflict, the more reprehensible it seems. Did I forget to mention that the Bin Laden family is quite chummy with the Bushies also. It makes you wonder.

Very insightful.  However, I did not quite get the point of your article Mr. Ritter.  Are you saying that a political solution is impossible in Iraq?  One thing is clear, that the solution is not military.  There is no way how the American military can control any of these virulently fanatic groups for whom jihad is the only answer.  American forces are caught in between religious wars that are rooted in several hundred years of history. 

I agree it is stupid of this administration (as well as deceptive) to continue this operation at the expense of the American tax payer and a voluntary army which stretched thin. 

There is no way how the Shiites are now going to give way to the Sunnis, wahabis or whatever.  The Shiites will establish the second Shiite Arab Islamic Republic in the land that gave birth to the Shiite branch.  We can decry Iran but Iran has no choice but to support its Shiite brethren in Iraq. 

Thanks to the U.S.  What the Mahadi army could not do for years, they did it for them. 

What is the future for Iraq?  That is the question?  The Bush administration arrogantly thinks it can control the future of Iraq.  They are wrong.  The Americans can prolong this war but lack the capacity to solve anything.

The only solution can come is by genuine involvement of Saudi Arabia on the one hand (for Sunnis) and Iran on the other (for Shiites).  I wonder why the adminstration has not asked their friends in Riyadh to do something?  The attitude of this administration toward Iran is horrendously idiotic.  Instead of befriending Iran and ignoring the nuclear issue for now, they are needlessly offending Tehran.  Commonsense tells me that first find a solution in Iraq before raising the issue of nuclear weapons with Tehran.  In any case the stupid and illegal invasion of Iraq has left the U.S. so weak the Iranians know that the Iraq war is blessing to them in more ways than one. 

You are absolutely right on the mark when it comes to the U.S. Congress.  They are doing nothing to end this war except to fool the foolish that something is being done.

I feel sorry for the kids that are dying in Iraq.  They have been betrayed by none other than their own generals who are willing slaves of the Military-Industrial complex.  No one is in any hurry to end this war as long as the defense contractors and the oil magnates continue to reap multi-million dollar profits.

Thanks, Mr. Ritter for all the info. I only wish Mr. Bremer, Mr. Rumsfeld, Mr. Cheney, and Ms. Rice et the ad hawk ilk could answer the quiz.

The $820,000 per minute we spend on the Military Budget plus the additional $216,000 per minute spent on Iraq could buy a much wider and deeper education in America and thereby informed citizens who would require the press to actually ask leaders these kind of in-depth questions before we set off pre-emptively to create the world’s most expensive and extensive rubble.

As a pro-peace activist, I applaud your not-wholly-futile efforts to educate us,

With all that’s been happening - wow whataweek - I just saw the video of the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at the podium ducking for cover when a mortar shakes the building as it explodes near by and there’s Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki just shaking off his body guards and going on as if nothing happened -  the man has got sand.

But, if nothing else, this one video will answer the question if the “surge” is working ... it’s over folks. Watch this and be amazed …

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nationworld/bal-iraq0322,0,2271911.story

Bravissimo!  And up until now I have been wondering why more are not outraged.  Your explanation offers me closure.

I have been routinely frustrated by the lack of serious debate on the war in Iraq.  The most common response by the average conservative is, “When then if you’re against the war then you must want Osama Bin Laden to move right in to da White House and jis start makin’ dem Islamic laws from the COO-ran”.

I now comprehend that this type of critical thinking, investigation and knowledge of world history are all stratospherically out of their grasp.

Thanks again,
Goffredo

I failed miserably, knew that before I read the the question. I’m now more informed than I was, for that, I thank you. I have been against the war in Iraq since I first heard about it being discussed after 911. What are your thoughts on why we are really there? My personal opinion is oil and control there-of.

Did I need to know all that to know that the oil in Iraq belongs to the people of Iraq, in spite of the beliefs of the neocon thieves?

Do I need to know the history of Islam to know that the USA is and has been dead wrong to have attacked and occupied another country?

Do I need to know all the social ramifications of the Iraqi people to know it is wrong to have caused the deaths of upwards to 2 million of them in the last 14 or 15 years?

Did I vote Democratic to register that I was unhappy with the way the war was being managed?

NO, NO, NO, AND NO.

Scott Ritter for President 2008.

When 25 to 30 percent of Americans believe the world is 6000 years old and that their ancestors cohabited with dinosaurs it is not surprising they know little of the ME.  From their statements they are ill informed about our own history and wish to establish a fantasy world much as this administration that used them to gain power wishes to transform the rest of the world for control and wealth.
This total unbriddled greed that seems to distinguish empires, ours is not the first, but it is the first disposing of means of instantaneous communication, draps itself in hypocritical banners of freedom and democracy.
The army is being used, just as the Roman legions, Napoleon’s armies and Hitler’s panzers were, for conquest, to expand empire. Goya’s, “Disasters of War” are as pertinent today as when he saw Spain raped by conquest.
It is terrible to see such waste and prevarication.  Congress cares about getting re-elected, not about the troups, not even about citizens, there are exceptions, we see them in the vote count and the media is corporate owned.
Thanks for your very informative article.

Benjamin has left me nothing to say.  I agree 100%. Being Canadian, I can’t vote, but if I could, I’d be working Kuchinich’s campaign as though my country’s survival depended on it.  Because it does.

I had to re-read parts of your article more than once to get the historical caliph’s relationship to each other straight. I finally felt like I came out of the woods when you got into the 19th century. Things were sounding more familiar.

We had a Wahabbi Tawheed Center down the street from me, in a suburb of Detroit, MI. Ironically, the convenience store across the street from it was owned by an Iraqi christian who fled when Hussein came into power 30 years ago. I’d speculate that the store owner was CIA, but the Tawheed Center was built many years after the owner bought that store. Detroit is chock full-o-middle eastern refugees from one conflict or another.

Great article.

Wow Scott, thank you for the history lesson.  However one did not need to know the details of the history of Islam to know that the 2003 invasion was a very bad idea.  One would only to have had a basic idea of military history to know that disaster would greet to American forces.  Never in the history of war has a foriegn power been able to occupy and permantly subdue a hostile population.  For example, the Germans, never acheived complete control of their conquests even with unrestriced murder. Other examples are many: England vs Ireland, France vs Russia and later Mexico and Indochina.  The list goes on and on.  Finally from a purely military stand point, conducting an offensive operation thousands of miles from your homeland is an idea that LaoTsu, George Washington, even Napoleon would question.  It should have been clear to anyone that in 2003 that this war was a very bad idea.

Excellent!  A must read piece for every American who votes.  I saw a photo of a handwritten sign made just after 9/11 in NYC.  It said, “maybe its time for a little understanding”. We should always seek understanding.  There is no excuse for bumbling into war.  Full Stop.
Thank you Mr. Ritter.

We the people wanted the War in Iraq to end. The
Democrats all cried we will end the maddness. What rip off are the Democrats. They don’t have any backbone, just a big mouth. Nancy Pelosi is nothing but a Grandstander. She hasn’t the guts to do the right thing for every American. She has to look and see how many points she can make.
Run them all out of office and start again.

Disgrunteled Vietnam Veteran.

Scott thank you.  I hope to see more of you on Democracy Now.  Your straight forward description of the confusing situation is much appreciated.  So what is to be done?  And by whom?  Certainly no outsider should foist a logical solution into their religion.  We, of course, must leave now; taking our corporations with us and allow the people of Iraq who are not ignorant children the time to make their own decisions.  The choas that will happen won’t be pretty, quick, easy to accept or painless.  But since Iraq is not our country, it is not for us to decide it’s fate.  Iraq’s oil is not our oil…yet.

Dear Scott,

An interesting article! The level of detail was impressive, too impressive to have much chance of being effective as an argument in Iowa. Don’t get me wrong, I agree with most of what you write, however, here I’m going to play the role of Devil’s advocate and present another perspective.

So what!? Who gives a damn about the difference between the Shia and the Sunnies? Let the motherfuckers slaughter each other. We didn’t go into Iraq because we care about these people and their nutty religious schisms. We there for our oil, which unfortunately is under their sand. Saudi Arabia has been overestimating its oil reserves for years and Dick Cheney knows it. Saudi has, in fact only one third of the oil reserves they boast about. Not only that, their very largest fields are in deep trouble and cannot keep production up. Iraq may have vast as yet untapped quantities of oil that we are going to need very shortly. So we don’t have choice. It’s a judgement call. Do we go in now and get the oil while we’ve still got the strength, or do we let the Chinese have it? Isn’t it a no-brainer? America’s lifeblood is oil. Any leader who chose not to safeguard our access and control of this vital resource, knowing what we know, would be acting irresponsibly in the extreme. We’re talking about the future of America here, guys! It’s not some academic debate. It’s a life or death struggle for the remaining sources of energy. And the worst thing is, people just don’t understand how hard Dick Cheney is working to protect Americans from a very uncertain future. When the gas stations are dry, the heating and the lights begin to go off, and the shelves in the mall begin to empty; then it’ll be too late to scream and shout and complain that Cheney never did anything and he of all people knew what was coming! So Dick’s building five massive and permanent basis in Iraq and a huge fortress in Baghdad, to control the country for years. Sure it won’t be easy, but at least it’ll be our army on top of all that oil and not the Chinese.

Seen from this alternative scenario, all this stuff about Sunnies and Shia, could be viewed as interesting, but irrelvant. If the worst comes to the worst we can start a war with Iran and nuke the bastards, that’s what the Romans would do isn’t it? Crush the rebels, smash them to pieces and create stability for generation or two. By then the oil will be pretty much used up and we can then withdraw our army and let the ragheads have their sand back!

Your article is a much needed history lesson.  Thanks.  On the other hand, don’t place too much confidence in experts, or even expertise.  As the following article relates, Bernard Lewis of Princeton University is supposed to be one of the world’s greatest mideast experts.  He is also said to be one of the intellectual driving forces behind the Iraq invasion, thinking that secularism could be imposed on the Iraqis as Ataturk did for the Turks.  Judge for yourself:

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2004/0411.hirsh.html

Remember, at trials they always find ‘expert witnesses’ to argue anything, if you have enough money.  And what about the talking heads on TV?  They flatly contradict each other, even on supposed ‘facts’.  Much of the expertise racket is simply a political game.  The think tanks are full of guns for hire.  Still, I agree that we citizens need to do a lot more homework.  Since most of us have families to take care of, the MSM is utterly derelict when it fails to provide all worthwhile points of view, i.e. all the info needed to make a wise decision.  See the other article at this site on the media by Jeff Cohen.  This new site looks promising.  I want to see more comments here, now!

Scott,

I admire you very much, and I was imploring everyone to listen to you before bush invaded Iraq. No one did. And I applaud you for what you’re saying now about Iran.

But, you always walk up to the line of 9/11 Truth, but never cross it. You need to cross that line.
I’ve seen videos of you with Ray McGovern who is solidly in the 9/11 Truth Movement.

The 9/11 house of cards needs to come down.
That was, and is, THE foundation for every bad thing that bush has perpetrated on this country and the world.

At the very least, I hope that you’ll call for a
new, true investigation into 9/11. It did not, and could not have happened the way they say it it.
Just look at WTC7.

Talking openly about 9/11 Truth will make another fake terror attack in this country very difficult to get away with because too many people will have major doubts next time.

bush has passed every law that he needs to declare martial law and mobilize the military for use in this country. I’m very afraid that he will do that after the next “terror attack”.

Scott, your knowledge of the subject is very impressive.  I had a vague idea of the difference between Sunni and Shiite; that there was a disagreement over who was the rightful successor to Muhammad, but no more.  Most Americans have little knowledge of Islam or over the roots of the Middle East conflict.  You have Max Boot stating that the conflict between the U.S. and Iran began with the 1979 hostage crisis!  How many people are aware of the 1953 CIA-organized coup against Mossagegh after his nationalization of the oil fields in Iran or that Kuwait was created after World War I so that Western oil companies would have control of access to the Persian Gulf?

As Ritter says, we must do our best to become informed about a wide range of issues.

This can be a challenge because of all the propaganda, spin, deception and outright lies in the media and coming from government officials and others.

Yet, because of sources like TruthDig.com and other information platforms, we can gather solid “intelligence” if we try. For more on this, the article below may be of interest:

“Gathering intelligence: Grassroots intel by and for the people”

By Steve Hammons
Columnist, PopulistAmerica.com
Populist Party of America
January 30, 2007

http://www.populistamerica.com/gathering_intelligence_grassroots_intel_by_and_for_the_people

Mr Ritter ... YOU ARE CORRECT in your assessment of the American public. Sadly, I must agree with most, if not all, of what you say. The U.S needs to get out of the middle Eastern religious warfare! I know the basic differences between Sunni, Shiite, Kurds and note it’s remarkable similiarity to Ireland’s Catholic -vs- Protestant conflict that has raged for so many years and claimed so many lives.I would hope for some enlightenment in the U.S. but knowing the controversies between the different facets of the ‘Christian religion’ - the outlook for America is dismal.
Good luck Sir.
Denis S

I don’t think we should fault many Americans for wanting to be disengaged from politics and policy or even knowledge of the wider world; most people simplay want to just live well and to be left with some privacy. However, a prolonged lack of concern gets people in trouble. America is not very good at foriegn policy, unless one considers endless war and hegemony good.

But Americans, loathe to face it that they are, have an ignorance streak in them, by and large. This is not to mean stupid, necessarily, but “uneducated” and “unconcerned.”

Americans are brought up being told that they are the “best,” the “bravest,” the “smartest” etc. etc. This attitude in indroctrinated into us from a very early age.

And so to are the College Educated, by and large, indoctrinated as to believe that Western Civilization—except for perhaps the French—is the “best” the world has.

Simply put, Americans, in general, think themselves superior than all other peoples on the planet—in science, sports, business, war, etc. We were the ones to put a man on the moon, right? Capitalism generates great wealth, so we can do such things. But now, with 3/4ths of the workers in the U.S. making at or below $50,000 a year, capitalism is concentrating far more wealth inthe hands of far fewer people than ever could have been imagined back in 1969.

Right now, the U.S. is being vastly out done as far as size and scope of building cities and infrastructure such as bridges, buildings, dams, etc. in much of the industrialized world. Little do Amercians know about that.

One really egregious problem with regard to ignorance is the religious power structure in the U.S. trying to educate us in “their” religious doctrine. Here is why:

If you believe, for example, in The Bible as the absolute truth and that It needs to be used for most instruction—as President George “Dubya” Bush has stated numerous times—one need not pursue an education beyond It!

With The Bible in hand (and in mind) people need not pursue science (geology, evolution, nature, astronomy, etc.) because science is irrelavent and even wrong! The Earth is only 6,000 years old, right?

With The Bible in hand (and in mind) people need not pursue anything remotely to do with any other religion or philosophy or spirituality.

The list goes on.

Many Americans are in a state of self-imposed ignorance.

M Ritter,
We hear all the time these learned people like david Gergen, Kissingger, Cohen, . all those people who come on TV to explain the difficult situation in Irak. In Canada, we also have our people who try to do the same as their american counterparts. Nobody seems to undestand the dynamic of the situation in Irak as you understand it and explain it so clearly.
The United States governement in connivence with a supposed elite, does its best to keep the american population in ignorance so that its actions will not be questioned.
That is why the democracy in your country does not exist any more. The governement does not care whatsoever about its population. We have seen how the war veterans who have become useless to the imperial state are being treated. We ask ourserves how the richest country of the world canno have a decent universal health system. I will tell you why; it is because the richness is in the hands of the few and it happens that many of these are part of the governement and wont vote laws to share that richness.
They will use the young and poor to wage wars all over the world but they will make sure that their own do not participate.
I am sorry for the population who have no say in the US policy; it is the fiefdom of the multinationals.
Thank you for helping us to understand the real dynamic in the situation in Irak. I can read english with difficulty, but if your books were translated in french, I would buy them all.
Thank you, M Ritter

What I’ve never understood are the schisms in Christianity: Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Russian Orthodox, Greek Orthodox, Mormon, evangelical, Quaker, Mennonite, Amish, Lutheran, Baptist, Methodist, Anglican, etc., etc.—it seems there are endless variations on Christianity.  Talk about incomprehensible!

Somewhere in all of this mish-mash of supposed truth is Jesus’ message - “Blessed are the peacemakers” - but it sure gets lost in the jockeying for power and control.

If instability and chaos are your goals, than as Cheney and others have said, Iraq is a success.

My husband Tom and I heard SCott on the NATION trip in December (including the supplementary forum in a piano lounge as well as his words on the panel earlier) We have been “crying wolf” ever since in regard to the present concern over Bush"s readiness to invade Iran.  Katrina, the publisher of the NATION agreed to print another article by Scott right away.  I went up to her personally and so did others requesting this, as SCott said he would write it if she would publish it.  SHe assured me it was as good as done.  It never appeared .  I dont know why.
So needless to say I was thrilled to read in this TRuth Dig blog Scott’s interview with Bob Scheer (who we had met on 3 former NATION trips.

Ritter hit the nail directly on the head: the Democrats in Congress are indeed cowards.  They are squandering not only their newfound power, but abandoning the hopes of the people who gave them that power.  The Dems ought to be courageously standing together on principle to unanimously demand an immediate end to this illegal, pointless, and deeply immoral war.  Of course, it won’t end as long as Bush is holding the reins; but what they are doing now won’t end it either; and their craven lack of resolve could lead to them to being thrown out again at the next election by a profoundly disappointed American public.

It’s what’s next…
“Live by the Sword, die by the Sword.”

(Scurrilous World Order Replaces Dubya)

i am sending this to everyone.
You’ve given the basics!

We have slugged the tar baby.

Hey, I’ve got an idea! If Matt Lauer or Katie Couric can find some time between their hard hitting reports on cellulite, home gardening and the latest American Idol maybe they could have a chat with someone who actually understands the situation in the Middle East. Scott Ritter might be worth looking at. When he’s done with a basic lesson on the recent history of the region and what’s gone and is going wrong there he can share his recipe for Chicken Scallopini with us.

Scott Ritter, indeed, and mainly there is this “willful ignorance,” such as the corporate media’s work to ignore building#7, in the 9/ll attack, the building an airplane did not reach, yet it sank also, itself not even structured of the so called “faulty engineering.” How weird in history this shall be, the newspapers pretending to never think about building #7.  Well, we know of your struggles, death threats and so on, but it is time some known voice publicly acknowledges these physics of 9/11 are “peculiar.”  Well, and could not all this naked king suddenly change the whole picture, change the past 100 years?  Suddenly, US citizens would face it, they are like everybody else, their rulers are crazy like other rulers.  And, our nation would become less schizoid, maybe become near normalcy.

THIS IS THE MAN, THE AMERICAN PEOPLE SHOULD BE VOTING FOR AS OUR NEXT PRESIDENT…WELL INFORMED,
KNOWS WHAT HE IS TALKING ABOUT. IT IS VERY INTERESTING, THAT NO ONE WOULD LISTEN TO SCOTT,
BEFORE, BUT THEY ARE SURE LISTENING NOW!!!

Good work, Scott. The depth of ignorance in America in particular is one source of how dysfunctional the whole occupation of Iraq has become. The ignorance amongst the public transfers to the soldiers who stem from them and the result is this kind of thing:

http://www.roadstoiraq.com/2007/03/22/1876/

Dear Benjamin,

I’ve waited years—no, decades—for Americans to start pulling their heads out, at least for one generation, after which they will return to their normal state.  During this time I’ve been forced to conclude that most Americans are not just stupid, but text-book psychopaths to boot.

I’ve also come to the conclusion that well funded kook-aid can disable brain cells of the most highly educated people.  I worked with many superior beings from oxford/cambridge within the ministry of truth, observing them whip up the hysteria on that side of the pond.  Never again will pedigree inspire respect.

It’s a small joy and positive sign to read that finally, some Americans are feeling remorse.  But, could this only be attributed to a sinking realization that the days of US impunity are long gone, instead of some vague feeling of personal responsibility for the mass killing sprees in Iraq (El Salvador, Vietnam, ad-nauseum)?  Time will tell.

Yes, this is a backhanded complement.  It’s the best I can do.  Is something more warm and fuzzy deserved?

Exitstan

I’ll try posting again, I’m pretty sure my comment got submitted for moderation, must not be very moderate, but here goes:

My opinion is, the way to stop the Iraq war from continuing is to keep doing exactly what they’re doing, pick a date on the calendar, and hold this administration to it, and if that fails to work, then withdraw the authorization for war. Pretty basic, pretty simple, and people might say that’s not ‘supporting the troops’. Well, neither is mishandling the war, and now that the clock’s turned over what is it now, 4 years, and there’s not even like a real army that they’re fighting against, well, it’s time to ask What’s Really Going On, here, we’ve sat politely by and watched all these goings-on all this time, but no more, as it’s time to speak, it’s time to speak critically, get Congress to start getting to the bottom of this entire enterprise, ‘follow the money’ etc., and figure out how to rein in runaway ‘war’ spending. One general, Smedly Butler, famously wrote that ‘war is a racket’. It was true in his day, and it’s still true today.
So, the smartest question that Congress could be asking on the People’s behalf is, “what DID just happen to 1.2 trillion dollars?”. I’ll bet we don’t see THAT one on 60 minutes anytime soon.

Yanking this administration’s war-waging carte blanche is likely to cause some withdrawal symptoms, eventually even the withdrawal of our troops from Iraq, and yes, that’ll leave the oil company people kind of standing there wondering about their future, but frankly, had they started spending all those billions on getting our country energy-independent right after 9/11 happened, likely there wouldn’t be one single army bootlace in Iraq today. But, this administration has instead chosen another path,
and, well gosh-shucky darn, wouldn’t you know
the petro-peeps are making money hand over fist off the whole deal. Coincidence? Not likely, but this is the market dynamic that seems to be governing our country today, but there’s no law that says that has to be the case 5-10-15 years from now, and it would probably benefit all concerned.

If you’re interested and willing to help expedite that process, there’s a website whose major purpose in life is to basically throw Bush out of office, it’s called http://www.votetoimpeach.org, or http://www.impeachbush.org, goes to the same site,
and over 3/4 of a million people have put their names in the hat to support that initiative.
My feeling is, the sooner that Halliburton et. al. are out of our government, the better off we’ll be. Nuff said.

The amazing fact here is the line of thinking and all the dogma it’s based on rather than any evidence. What gets me is that how can any reasonable person base so much of what’s really important on a line of beliefs that are pure dogma with no evidence. But I guess that’s why they call it faith.

And how could Americans understand any of this while we’re busy watching American Idol, the Superbowl and all our other entertainment, working 40+ hours per week and commuting another 10+ hours. (Little different than the Viet Nam scenario.) We can’t even elect leaders with an understanding greater than that of 10 year old and his understanding of a TV cowboy show.

Scott - interesting lesson.  Here’s another question for the american public:  Why did the Trade Towers fall?  If your answer is that a group of muslims in airplanes did it, you fail.  This was an earlier failure of Congress, they promulgated that lie to avoid their responsibility to their constituents, and all of the troops.

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.

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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.