Scott Ritter on Iran and the Return of a Draft

When Scott Ritter speaks about Iraq, he does so from a position of authority. As the chief U.N. weapons inspector in Iraq from 1991 to 1998, Ritter worked for seven years to disarm Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction, confronting deceptive Iraqis in what were often heated meetings that eventually resulted in the former Marine facing accusations of being a U.S. spy. By 2001, Ritter arose as one of the harshest critics of the Bush administration, claiming that it had exploited the 9/11 terrorist attacks in order to pursue the "immoral" and "illegal" war on Iraq, a war based on the deliberate distortion of the country's weapons of mass destruction capabilities. Nowadays, Ritter is busy traveling around the country as part of a tour in support of his new book "Iraq Confidential."

On April 20, Ritter came to speak at the Coronado Democratic Club, where he discussed his experience as a weapons inspector, the case for war on Iraq, the nuclear standoff with Iran, and his thoughts on the general direction of U.S. foreign policy, a policy he describes as the pursuit of nothing less than "global domination." After the lecture, I sat down with Ritter and discussed the case for war on Iraq, the prospects for the return of a draft and the possibility of a bombing campaign directed at Iran.

The following is an edited transcript of the conversation:

Charles Davis: As someone intimately familiar with Iraq from your experience as chief U.N. weapons inspector, what was your response to then Secretary of State Colin Powell's presentation to the U.N. in February 2002 in regard to Iraq's alleged failure to disarm?

Scott Ritter: I was supposed to address the International Foreign Correspondents Association, and we delayed it so that we could see Colin Powell's presentation. And I watched it, and without even having to sit down [and research it], I just went up and gave a presentation that debunked Colin Powell point by point by point. And I thought for sure that the world would see through this thing, but you read the editorials the next day, and it's all "brilliant," "slam dunk," "home run." It's an embarrassment.

CD: Do you think the media bears a lot of the burden for the invasion of Iraq?

SR: I think they're culpable. And Judith Miller, Bob Woodward, and others represent the worst manifestation of the disease that affects the media. One of the big problems with the media, especially the Washington, D.C. aspect of it, is you become addicted to your sources of information. In Washington, D.C., the sources are government, so you pretty much become an extension of the government. So nobody is willing to trade their access in exchange for telling the truth. Now [sometimes] the government is so egregious in what it does that the media has no choice [but to report the truth]. But as we saw with Iraq, the media made no effort to credibly go after the Bush administration's case. And in the case of the New York Times, the newspaper of record, you have the media allowing this woman, Judy Miller, to write front-page stories that were dictated to her by the White House? The violation of journalistic ethics also extended not just to her, but the whole New York Times that allowed her to do this without challenging her. The New York Times became basically a cheerleader for war. CNN was a cheerleader for war. Every news service was a cheerleader for war.

CD: Now during the Vietnam War, college campuses were basically the focal point of [anti-war] protests. Why is it that when you walk on a college campus now, most kids are talking about iPods rather than the war?

SR: Well, one of the problems in Vietnam is that you could be drafted, so it was a lot more personal. And I don't think there's that level of fear [today].

CD: Do you think that anti-war sentiment would be greater if people knew that their children were susceptible to being drafted?