CHICAGO, February 28, 2012 — Scott Ritter was the lead American United Nations weapons inspector in Iraq during the 1990s. His brash ego got him in trouble along with his penchant for media adulation.
The former Marine Corps officer was the darling of the media with his rugged good looks and athletic build. He never saw a camera or microphone he couldn’t love.
He discussed Iraq’s program of developing weapons of mass destruction with the zeal of an Evangelical missionary. For some reason he ran afoul of his masters so he switched sides.
He became a darling of the left. His brash motor mouth ran incessantly, recanting everything. He wrote books no one bought and articles few people read. He became an anti-war activist before there was even a war. The left adopted him as a credible expert source about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, or lack thereof.
But Mr. Ritter led a secret life, which finally caught up with him.
In October of 2011, Scott Ritter was found guilty of being a sexual predator, with Wikipedia reporting:
Ritter was detained in April 2001 and arrested in June 2001in connection with police stings in which officers posed as under-aged girls to arrange meetings of a sexual nature. The first incident did not lead to any charges.He was charged with a misdemeanor crime of "attempted endangerment of the welfare of a child" after the second, but charges were dropped after he completed six months of probation and the record was sealed on condition that he avoid further trouble for a period of time. After this information was made public in early 2003, Ritter said that the timing of the leak was politically motivated.
Ritter was convicted of five felony counts and two misdemeanors. He was sentenced to 18-66 months in prison. He was classified as a violent predator, so he must register as a sex offender when he is released.
Scott Ritter had past arrests for his predilections. He was given chances by the system. He was even required to go through therapy. He just kept on committing more crimes. He was a serial predator.
“Jail doesn’t scare me,” Ritter said. “Not being there for my family scares me. Jail is something guilty people fear. I’m not guilty.” (Scott Ritter/NYT)
Guilty is guilty. Jail is not someplace guilty people fear. Jail is someplace guilty people go. Mr. Ritter does not comprehend that.
The New York Times, that bastion of leftwing apologia and eulogy, published a long, tortuous, and boring paean to Scott Ritter in Sunday’s magazine. Matt Bai, the magazine’s chief political correspondent, wrote it.
Why is Ritter’s plight so compelling? Why did the chief political correspondent think this was such an important matter of public interest?
Scott Ritter comes off as a somewhat pathetic figure in the article. Ritter claims he is a victim. Who he is a victim of is not clear, but he comes off as someone we should pity, feel sorry for, and have mercy on. His family is destitute, he has six figure legal bills, and he is in prison. All for stuff that should be between him and his wife, or so he says.
Scott Ritter has no one to blame but himself. He is the victim of his own ego, vanity, and sexual depravity. Only a died-in-the-wool conspiracy theorist would consider him a victim of the government, the system, or anything else.
Why the New York Times magazine published this ode to a degenerate is not clear. Maybe it was to keep the fallacy alive that Ritter is an important progressive hero and political prisoner whose voice should not be silenced.
Maybe it was to take cheap shots at the war in Iraq.
Matt Bai makes this assertion in the article: “As the last American troops left Iraq, it’s fair to say that the war and the debate that surrounded it produced few real heroes; rather, it served as a kind of vortex of destruction that sucked in and defiled nearly everyone associated with it.”
That is a direct insult to our heroic troops. It desecrates their service and sacrifice.
It would be interesting to know Mr. Bai’s definition of a real hero? Surely it can’t be Scott Ritter. Mr. Ritter is no hero, except to some marginal fringe groups. He is no one who deserves respect, fame, or the time it took to read the article.
Why Matt Bai wasted so much space on this deviate is puzzling, especially since Ritter is so unrepentant for his actions.
Ritter keeps shooting himself in the foot by opening his mouth.
“I’m not humiliated,” he told me recently, when I suggested he should be. “It’s nobody else’s business. And anybody who seeks to make it their business, they should be humiliated. They should be ashamed. They should be embarrassed. What I did or what I didn’t do is nobody’s business but my own and my wife’s. And the fact that this had been dragged out into the public eye the way it has speaks volumes about our society.”
Mr. Ritter does not comprehend that when you are arrested, tried, and convicted, it is all a matter of public record. It is all of our business. What speaks volumes about Mr. Ritter is his total lack of remorse and repentance. This is probably the reason he was finally imprisoned. Being an egoistic degenerate means never having to say you’re sorry.
It does not fly well with sentencing judges, no matter your past good deeds, service, or character references.
Scott Ritter is the one who should be embarrassed. His lack of humility and his hubris speaks volumes about him.
Scott Ritter is a serial predator who finally got what he deserved, a prison sentence. Why waste time, effort, and valuable media real estate on him?
Peter V. Bella is a retired Chicago Police Officer, freelance writer and photographer, cook, and raconteur. He likes to be the sharp stick that pokes, prods, and annoys. His opinions are his and his alone.
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