We Harbor a Traitor in Our Midst
by Surfside on Feb 15, 2005 at 15:54 Uncategorized
We may have found a new poster child to replace Jane Fonda as a wartime traitor. Scott Ritter, former Marine and former Chief Inspector to UNSCOM (the UN Special Commission to disarm Iraq), sleeps with the enemy.
Many of us are aware how Ritter views GWB and the Iraq situation. He regularly visits various US news shows voicing his displeasure and throwing barbs at the administration. In our country free speech is a fundamental right; but, he has crossed the line. He has taken his show on the road and now writes editorials/opinions for al Jazeera’s web site. He’s been involved in this endeavor since at least November 2004.
“The highly vaunted US military machine, laurelled and praised for its historic march on Baghdad in March and April of 2003, today finds itself a broken force, on the defensive in a land that it may occupy in part, but does not control.” — The Salvador Option by Scott Ritter, al Jazeera, 1/25/05
With few US citizens visiting al Jazeera’s Web site, Ritter flies under the radar. He should take a page from the Peter Arnett book of errors in judgment, though. If you remember, journalist Arnett granted an interview to state-controlled Iraqi TV, saying shortly after the incursion began that the US war plan had failed. He was booted off all his US reporting jobs and cries for revocation of his citizenship were heard. Many commentaries linked the word “traitor†to his name.
The public will eventually learn about Ritter’s activities. All but the most vehemently opposed to GWB and the Iraq incursion will find his actions reprehensible. As a former Marine of 12 years, it seems incomprehensible that he would turn against his brothers-in-arms by providing “aid and comfort to the enemy.”
“The real danger in Iraq is not the inevitable defeat of the United States and the interim government of Iyad Allawi, but the fact that the longer it takes for the United States to realise that victory cannot be achieved, the more emboldened the Islamists become.” — The Risk of the al-Zarqawi Myth by Scott Ritter, al Jazeera, 12/14/04
In his most recent piece, Ritter claims the US is training and equipping death squads, Iraqi assassins, to infiltrate and eliminated the leadership of the Iraqi resistance. He sites press accounts, but fails to name a single reliable source. Our MSM picked up on this story and is running with it – although there has been no confirmation by the Pentagon or a any administration official. Most of the MSM concedes the plan may involve kidnapping squads, as opposed to death squads.
Debating the practicality or efficacy of such a plan is not the issue of this post. If such a plan existed, Ritter and the MSM endangered the lives of all involved – and, likely, innocent civilian suspected of such activities by terrorist leaders. If Ritter and the MSM have erred, they have still endangered these innocent lives. It is my firm belief that the MSM pulled this information from Ritter’s piece, which was written a good two weeks before any major news conduits reported it.
I encourage you to read the Ritter pieces to which I have provided links. They drip vitriol and hatred towards our country and its policies. Even if you agree with the premise of these articles, you surely will be offended by the forum in which Ritter chose to vent them. If we cannot prosecute him for treason, I say send Ritter to Qatar (al Jazeera’s main location) where he belongs and revoke his citizenship. Let him “report†from the front lines, instead of his comfy US armchair. He obviously has little regard for the safety of the men and women serving in Iraq and for any innocent Iraqis wrongly suspected of “death squad” involvement.
The Salvador Option
The Risks of the al-Zarqawi Myth
Squeezing Jello in Iraq
Tags: General