Former Marine intelligence officer Scott Ritter was asked today in Kazan, Russia if he was not afraid to speak out against the policy of the U.S. government. His answer is a lesson in courage which his fellow Americans need to hear, and emulate. The question came up in the discussion period following Ritter’s presentation of his book, Disarmament in the Time of Perestroika, to a full room of journalists at the press agency, Tatar-Inform, in Kazan, the capital of Russia’s Republic of Tatarstan.
“You are 100% correct. Speaking out against the policy of the American government oftentimes results in the powers of the American government to be turned on you.” But, as we say in the United States, this isn’t my first rodeo, he answered, and explained: “I’ve been through this before. When I resigned from my position as a United Nations weapons inspector, a very senior CIA official told me straight to my face, that if I speak out against American policy, the FBI will destroy me and my family. I can tell you they tried very hard to do just that. Am I afraid? What more can they do to me? I’m worried they may try again.”
What sacrifice would you be willing to make for your family? He replied, there is a “a great American” that he pays a lot of attention to, named Daniel Ellsberg. Ellsberg released secret information about the Vietnam War that helped bring an end to that war. The government tried to destroy him; they charged him with treason, which in the United States carries the death penalty.
As Ellsberg was walking up the stairs to the courthouse to go on trial, “a journalist asked him: `Aren’t you afraid to go to prison or die for this?’
“And without hesitation, he said: `Wouldn’t you go to prison if you could stop this war?’
“We’re talking about the future of our children. What I know is that if I don’t do what I am doing right now, no one else is going to do it. And the consequences of me doing nothing are far greater than whatever the government can do for me for trying to stop war. So, I’m not afraid,” Ritter concluded. Worth watching: https://youtu.be/Sghr68eyMIs?t=3852 (from 1:04:16 to 1:08:41)
Tatar-Inform published a story on Ritter’s presentation, reporting his statement that he had written the book because he “wanted to convey to the people of the two countries [Russia and the U.S.] that we can work and coexist together without war and conflict. If a solution was found when the world was on the brink of nuclear abyss, nothing prevents it from being found now…. `I think my book should be read by as many Russians and Americans as possible. Because people on both sides have forgotten how to find common ground and understand each other,’ the author concluded…. `We must remember that nuclear war is not a computer game. There will be no restart.’” [https://www.tatar-inform.ru/news/esli-by-ne-dogovor-o-razoruzenii-mezdu-sssr-i-ssa-to-nikogo-iz-nas-by-seicas-ne-zil-5906053]
