Scott Ritter: "There is no “war on terror” for America to fight"

[kpete]

Scott Ritter's Columns
Obama’s Alternate Universe

By Scott Ritter —

The “war on terror” is a self-perpetuating problem with no solution. Worse, it ultimately will destroy America, not from any actions by whatever “enemy” America conjures up, but rather from the actions undertaken by America itself.

..................

As America enters 2010, one does not require a crystal ball to forecast that issues pertaining to Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and the “war on terror” will dominate the headlines throughout the year. And here’s one thing that is less clear but every bit as certain: So long as President Obama fails to recognize that there is no “war on terror” for America to fight, and that the problems in the Middle East and Central Asia cannot be resolved without recognizing the paramount roles of Palestine and Kashmir, respectively, then not only will there be no solution to America’s problems but these problems will only get progressively worse, creating the conditions for the formulation of a series of new “solutions,” none of which will address the problems they are designed to resolve.

Sadly, if this prediction comes true, 2010 will be a very bad year for the American people, and the world as a whole, simply because those who can make a difference are operating in an alternative policy universe governed by the self-serving interests of those who use politically induced fear as a mechanism of placating a public oblivious to the fact that they are sleepwalking ever closer to a demise of their own making. For this we have no one to blame but ourselves.

more:
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/obamas_alternative_universe_20100108/

[PDJane]

1. And he's right, as usual.

The whole idea of a war on terror is a self-perpetuating lie.

[Plucketeer]

67. Exactly!

Harrasing and shooting a few deluded religios zealots doesn't even come close to qualifying as "war". But the dems can see the terror in the eyes of those whipped to a frenzy by the right, and they daresn't try to just pretend the "war" doesn't exist anymore. SO.... instead of the small and mobile special forces units we could be chasing little flare-ups with, we've got the whole of our ponderous, made-to-fight-a-real-war military tied up and burning thru borrowed trillions.

The chance to wage "war" is right in our own cities and towns, but no legislator's gonna bring up the fact that there's gangs fighting over turfs and killing folks daily RIGHT in their own districts! No, we're supposed to worry about some lame sects off in countries we can't even find on the globe!

[EFerrari]

2. Right again. n/t

[David Zephyr]

3. I just wrote the same thing the other night. There is no war on terror.

But it is convenient to control people, it is swell to rip off taxpayers and it gives purpose to lousy government that doesn't provide free healthcare or free university education, that has the worst public transportation system in the entire developed world.

War on terror my ass.

[treestar]

4. where were these people during the Bush Administration?

Their columns never got printed then.

[Webster Green]

12. Ritter was certainly published during the war-chimp's reign.

He was attacked and ignored and called a pedophile.

He was always right on the money.

He begged in 2002/2003 not to attack Iraq, because there were no WMDs (as the war-chimp was insisting).

He was a WMD inspector in Iraq, and knew what the fuck he was talking about!

[pocoloco]

18. Where were you that you were not familiar with Scott Ritter??

[treestar]

60. Pundits and columnists are people I could hardly care less about

I think for myself.

So it amazes me that suddenly the concept I abhorred, the "war on terror" is suddenly publicized as no good. While Bush was in office, it did not seem to me Mr. Ritter got so much play.

IOW, the amount of attention I pay, someone saying this got not play during the Boosh Administration, but now does. Interesting.

Proof again the right wing media only publicizes those cheering the Repukes (so I never heard of him them) and slamming the Dems (so now I've heard of him)

[EFerrari]

23. Scott Ritter was demonized BIGTIME by the presstitutes

during the torture president's terms. They practically called him a raving lunatic. They were HORRIBLE to him.

And he was right then and he's still right now.

[jonnyblitz]

25. Hell, DUer WilliamPitt had a small book of an interview with him

published on the Iraq war for chrissake.

http://www.amazon.com/War-Iraq-What-Team-Doesnt/dp/1893956385/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1263104200&sr=1-4

[Radical Activist]

27. Dissent wasn't allowed under Bush. Its OK with a Democrat in office.

[12string]

53. Scott Ritter

tried to tell the world there were no WMD in Iraq.We should listen to him now.He is right again and we ignore what he says at our own peril.

[madrchsod]

5. we supply blood and money to protect the precious juice

the war will never end until we are bled dry of everything we have

[montanacowboy]

6. Until the US stands up to Israel

and withholds the billions we give them, demand the settlements stop and even handed broker a two state solution with fairness to all this bullshit will never end, in my lifetime, in your lifetime or in anyone's lifetime that we know on earth. It is a fucking racket, war is a racket, most of the congress makes big bucks off the racket and it will worsen as we spend more and more of our GDP for war and the trappings of war. This country is in quicksand and we are being swallowed up in a swamp of greed and power. The more things change....well you know...the more they stay the same.

[bridgit]

7. Yup

[Gregorian]

9. Right on, Montana.

There are a few things in life that make me happy. One is hearing people say the things you did in your post.

There is a truth. A reality. Being aligned with that reality is the only way we can live. Everything else is temporary gain, and ultimately painful.

[LuckyLib]

57. Exactly. We keep dancing to Israel's tune and the song never ends.

Now that we are embroiled in new wars on every front, the equation just gets more complicated.

[stray cat]

72. Now they are responsible for 9-11?

[Gregorian]

8. Scott Ritter, will someone please listen to this man!

He has been right all along.

Something Bartcop used to say about people who make profitable mistakes will continue making those same mistakes over and over again. I think he was being loose with the term mistake.

There's lots of money to be made with this fake war. Or inversely, lots to be lost if we don't fight it.

[Zywiec]

10. On February 18, 2005 Scott Ritter told an audience in Olympia, Washington

that George Bush had signed-off on preparations to bomb Iranian nuclear facilities, and that these preparations would be completed by June 2005.

He has not been right all along.

[Gregorian]

13. Oh yeah, I do remember that.

I should back off on my unbridled enthusiasm. But he speaks with an intensity that speaks for me.

I would like to give him the benefit of the doubt. Bush may very well have had something in the works for Iran.

[Webster Green]

14. You have evidence that there were no "preparations"?

I would bet that there were, even if the idiotic plan didn't get carried out.

[BunkerHill24]

17. Have you been reading!

We know from Seymour Hersh's reports that the US has a series of covert paramilitary forces inside Iran...a covert US paramilitaries attacking Iran from within, authorized by secret executive order.

[tom_paine]

34. Ahem

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=Barksdale+nuclear&aq=f&oq=&aqi=g1

You know how it is with big plans, always being delayed. :evilgrin: One can only imagine (unless you are a member of the Bushie Inner Circle) how that works with Black Ops which are considered to be illegal actions by virtually anyone else who came in contact with the Op.

Of course, one could still say Ritter didn't get it quite right and I would have to agree with that.

Still the Minot/Barksdale "incident" does strongly suggest a Bushie False Flag Black Op, either accidentally or purposefully revealed before it could be carried out to the end.

[Raster]

45. Sometimes, my dear Zywiec, bringing potential problems "to light" before they ever happen...

...is the wisest course of action. It tends to "head if off at the pass," as it were.

On an overall basis, Ritter's information AND INTERPRETATION have been outstanding, even at times seemingly better than those US institutions tasked with providing said information. After the last eight years of Imperial Amerika, I'll cut Ritter some slack.

[louis-t]

55. The "preparations" probably were. Some semblace of sanity

kept them from carrying out the attacks.

[sabrina 1]

56. Sy Hersch said the same thing. I believe there were

preparations and that they are still in place. The fact that it didn't happen was most likely due to the fact that the military realized they couldn't do it. Cheney and his cabal have never given up on it and are still pushing for a strike on Iran.

Back then, there was talk, even in our media, of using tactical nukes against Iran. Some wiser heads prevailed obviously maybe BECAUSE people like Ritter and Sy Hersch spoke out about it.

Anyone who was around at the time, must remember how Fox was beating the war drums against Iran every night.

So, maybe we owe Ritter and Sy Hersch and others who leaked these plans a debt of gratitude rather than say 'they were wrong'. I don't believe for a minute they were wrong. The Neocon cabal had even dredged up some fake 'documents' that were supposedly proof of Iran's plans to build Nukes.

We can also thank the IAEA for its reports stating there was no evidence of Iran's Nuclear Weapon's plans.

He got a standing ovation on the Donahue show when he slapped down the WMD inspector who had been his boss when he was in Iraq, who was backing the WMD lie. He provided documents on the show, to demonstrate that the WMD claims were a lie. The audience believed him.Right after that the Donahue show was canceled and Ritter was smeared and the MSM stopped inviting him as a guest.

[timefortherevolution]

64. The media blowback from that revelation is what put the kabosh on it.

At that point, we were mired in 2 unwinnable wars and Americans were beginning
to get sick and tired of Dr. Strangelove's rantings.

Ritter was probably right because Seymour Hersch was saying the same thing.

It fits with the Cheney/Lieberman mantra.

[truedelphi]

11. K & R. On C Span last night, the American troops were in some dusty forlorn

Part of Afghanistan. Surrounding one of the houses in the region was a nice and nearly mature hedge of marijuana.

The camera man asked the commanding officer what would be done about it. The CO sniffed that they didn't have the legal authority to do anything, though he would like to. But charges would be made to the local governor, who could then insist on the plants being cut down and destroyed.

All I could think was, "Great. We are on basically another drug war mission, one that probably lines some pocket of some CIA agency or its people. We are America the Militant, making the world safe for our style of hypocrisy."

[roody]

15. I hope that the marijuana was left alone. eom

[truedelphi]

19. One very sad thing about the wars in Afghanistan is this:

before the Russian assault in the eighties, Afghanistan was a treasure for the modern day herbalist.

A huge number of herbs grew there - not just cash crops like the poppies and the marijuana crops, but everything from oregano to various salvias.

Herbalists loved to visit that nation. The native herbalists knew so very much about each variety of plant: when to plant - during a rainy week, or dry, and when to harvest, before or after it flowered, etc.

A whole world of knowledge has been lost by the endless war that has occurred there.

[glitch]

24. Heartbreaking.

Like the looting of the museums in Baghdad, the idiots lay waste to what they are too stupid to value.

[earcandle]

48. Taking the real medicinals out of reach....

[truedelphi]

62. My friends are getting great results with their fibromyalgia

By using Black Walnut extract.

And it is free for them too - they collect the nuts in the fall.

The price of "Lyrica" the FDA recommended treatment for fibromyalgia was abt $ 300 a month back when it first hit the Pharmacy shelves.

I am so waiting for the FDA to rule that black walnuts are more dangerous than atomic warfare.
Cannot have really truly free market competition.

[Webster Green]

22. Probably some really nice skunk too.

A lot of today's connoisseur pot was bred by crossing fat, sticky and stinky Afghani Indica with really potent Thai and Pakistani Sativas. We called them Halfie-Affies in the late 70's and early 80's in Humboldt County, where a lot of the great strains had their origins. Fuckin' hippies! :hippie:

[arcadian]

33. Afghanistan was on the Hippy trail.

I know some folks who were Merry Pranksters(on the bus with Kesey) who went to India and Afghanistan in the 70s.

[Webster Green]

35. Yeah, I know some folks from Humboldt who went in the 70s..

They brought back some killer Indica seeds and things started getting really interesting.

Cool that you know some pranksters! I met Kesey and Ken Babbs and a couple of other pranksters at a book signing one time. I managed to get a copy of 'The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test' signed by them, that I had already gotten signed by Tom Wolfe, then lost the damn thing when I defaulted on a storage locker and lost all my really cool shit. Oh well, it was just stuff. I still have the memories of the great times we had in the 60s, though some folks like to say that if you remember then you weren't really there. :smoke:

[givemebackmycountry]

66. Back in the day I had a girlfriend - who had a friend and...

She would bring home these golf ball sized buds of Afghan pot.
They were round, like a ball and tightly compact.
Break one open and that smell would burst out.

Killer bud.

[BunkerHill24]

16. This article is a must-read for everyone.....K&R

[Solly Mack]

20. k/r

[StarfarerBill]

21. K&R

[roamer65]

26. There will be a "war on terror"...

as long as we permit defense contractors to have open access to the US Treasury. They have to have some excuse for their scam. Eisenhower was "dead-on" about the military-industrial complex.

[leftstreet]

28. K&R

[Vinnie From Indy]

29. Ritter would be right if the War on Terror was actually about terror

The War on Terror never has been about catching bad guys. It was created to enrich and empower a conglomeration of business interests and politicians. It seems to also be the point of the spear in killing off many of the basic freedoms enjoyed by Americans for over 200 years. In short, it is a scam just as that War on Drugs was/is a scam.

Sadly, with the complete and total backing of America's corrupt media, if we are hit again in any substantial way, you can kiss the Bill of Rights goodbye.

[Webster Green]

36. Um, that's pretty much what Ritter was saying.

He's calling them out on their phony-baloney war on terror. You've just agreed with him and declared him wrong in the same post. :wtf:

[Vinnie From Indy]

58. Woohoo!

I blame the liquor! :)
Cheers!

[malaise]

30. +1,000

Rec

[DailyGrind51]

31. The ONLY real terror is finding a tumor the day after your COBRA expires!

[maryf]

32. Last paragraph can be applied across the board

"Sadly, if this prediction comes true, 2010 will be a very bad year for the American people, and the world as a whole, simply because those who can make a difference are operating in an alternative policy universe governed by the self-serving interests of those who use politically induced fear as a mechanism of placating a public oblivious to the fact that they are sleepwalking ever closer to a demise of their own making. For this we have no one to blame but ourselves."


While I've found Scott Ritter to have some blind spots, his sincerity and concern are indisputable, and he learns everyday. K&R

[democrank]

37. K & R

[TexasObserver]

38. Recommend

[valerief]

39. kick

[polly7]

40. I've seen videos of him calling the Bush cabal on their BS

He definitely doesn't care what they think of him. A good, brave man who told it straight from the start.

[winyanstaz]

41. Exactly!! K & R

[TexasObserver]

42. "There is no “war on terror” for America to fight"

[yellowwood]

43. I Like Ritter

I always admired Ritter for standing against the neocons, even though it cost him.

[AuntPatsy]

44. Interesting since this very same issue has been brought up time after time for years now

by many different political anyalists...we seem to have ignored thier predictions since they have obviously come true in how terrorist wars would be used as but one of many such smoke screens in order to further ummm certain agenda's and once again have the citizens of this country or any country become memorized by the bouncing ball without ever wondering who first threw it out there...so many distractions so little time to sort them all out...

[peacetalksforall]

46. A great sentence:

"Sadly, if this prediction comes true, 2010 will be a very bad year for the American people, and the world as a whole, simply because those who can make a difference are operating in an alternative policy universe governed by the self-serving interests of those who use politically induced fear as a mechanism of placating a public oblivious to the fact that they are sleepwalking ever closer to a demise of their own making. For this we have no one to blame but ourselves."

Wake up. Stay awake. Wake others.

First five words - if this prediction comes true
Last words - we have no one to blame but ourselves.

The war is against us. Our enemies are our lords, barons, kings, and mercenaries. They have all the armor and we provided it. They wanted to privatize and deregulate and they did - and we lost and may lose plenty more from privacy to pensions to homes to rights. And the prisons and dungeons are all ready to go. Who has the key?

[Vidar]

47. Actually there is a War on Terrror to fight, but the Terrorists are in Washington.

[happy_liberal]

59. +1000

as Bush stated 'they never stop thinking of new ways to terrorize our country and our people'

They will not stop until we stop them. What are we going to do to let them know we aren't going to take this BS anymore?

[Christa]

49. Right

We actually all know it ...

[yurbud]

50. even Palestine and Kashmir would be solely regional problems if we weren't

choosing and arming sides.

[pleah]

51. K&R

[Name removed]

52. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[lib2DaBone]

54. Great Article. We continue to ignore the real problem....

(snip page three)

The heart of the problems facing the United States in the Middle East lies not in actions taking place in Baghdad or Tehran but rather in Gaza and Tel Aviv. The continued refusal of the United States to address the issue of Palestine and the Palestinians in a manner that reflects the reality of the situation on the ground, rather than the situation that exists inside Washington, as manipulated and interpreted by Israeli interests, means that the tension and unrest this issue generates will never be resolved. The conflicts with Iraq and Iran are, in many ways, simply symptoms of a larger disease represented by the failure of the United States to formulate a sound and realistic policy regarding Palestine. So long as American politicians find themselves constrained by a pro-Israeli lobby that refuses to permit the inclusion of either the concept or reality of Palestine into the lexicon of American foreign policy considerations (beyond simplistic “dual-state” and other demeaning and dishonest formulations), then there can and will be no long-term solution to any other modern Middle Eastern problem.

[LWolf]

61. There never has been. nt

[defendandprotect]

63. Of course not . . . and from the fake 9/11 to the fake undies ... it's all farce...

And Scott Ritter has tried over the years to give us some real info

even in the Bush years!!

[juno jones]

65. K&R! n/t

[G_j]

68. the powers that be, actually know this

that's the most depressing part

[winyanstaz]

69. I understand this whole underwear bomber thing...

is to not only impose more regulations and prepare people for more police state actions but to create a new and improved "boogyman" since Bin laden isnt scaring anyone any more.
They still havent figured out that the public have figured out their scare tactics and wont be so easily frightened the next time they attack us and blame al toilet.

[RoccoR5955]

70. Scott Ritter is one smart dude,

and he's always correct. He's spot on in this presumption as well.

[pasto76]

71. OK even Bush and Co stopped using "war on terror"

its just the wrong words. They started using "global struggle against extremism" or something along those lines.

PRESIDENT Obama is correct for not using GWOT. He DID say last week thatw e are "at war with Al Quaeda" severl times, and also against extremism. Cant say it much more clearly than that. Those folks saying that he MUST use GWOT are fucking dumb.

And like, Congress never declared war on anyone, so technically we are not at war, against "terror" or otherwise...

Besides, call it what you will, its still a mess that will be hard to get out of.


SGT PASTO