MEETING SCOTT RITTER

So you are trying to interview someone reasonably famous. You are not used to doing it and you know there is going to be a scrum to get near him. How would you like to approach such a day?

It certainly wouldn’t be the way I did it, which was nursing a bad hangover. Not only that but at the campsite I had cracked my rib tripping over a tent rope and hitting a picnic table the previous evening. I then slept outside with no sleeping bag (its cold in Scotland). I had to go the campsite because I stayed in the pub too long and missed the last bus home. In short, I was not on top form.

G8 alternatives were hosting a massive political meeting in Edinburgh around the time of the G8 at Gleneagles in Scotland. Scott Ritter, Bianca Jagger, George Galloway, George Monbiot, Danny Schechter and so many others were coming to speak. I had a press pass and wanted to speak to a lot of them but I hadn’t really done any hack work before. In truth I found the whole thing fairly demeaning, scrambling toward people you don’t know begging to be spoken to. I will do interviews again, but not the press pack scramble.

I had my first experience of this earlier in the day (when the hangover was worse) and lots of journalists were trying to get a piece of George Monbiot (there is a link to his site here). I lost heart in the venture very quickly. The mainstream media journalists were more or less giving him abuse and I ended up taking sides and giving him a question he could attack rather than defend. I can’t remember exactly what I asked him, it was something like “do you think the corporate greenwash so widely disseminated in the mainstream media is damaging to the public debate?” I think it’s called throwing him a bone, and I am not ashamed of it at all. It was a question he could have a go at so I sat back, didn’t take notes and just enjoyed the looks on the hacks faces as they scowled at me and got abuse from him. Still, I never did get the chance to speak to him afterwards, which was a shame.

Later in the day it was Ritter’s turn. He made a speech similar to many I have seen him make before, aggresively criticising US middle east policy. At the end I started to sidle toward the stage as did a few others. People from the audience were coming up and shaking his hand, saying that they really respected what he was doing and so on. I thought the way people were looking at him was odd - almost reverential. They were congratulating him on his bravery. I think some of them thought it was a matter of time till someone shoots him.

His military past was obvious. Someone asked him something and he burst out with “amateurs talk tactics, professionals talk logistics” at which I had to suppress a smile - the way he said it had ex-soldier written all over it.

Then he talked about being a Republican. I asked him that if that was the case how did he feel going round the world criticising Bush et al. He just replied ‘he’s not a Republican.’ I asked him how he felt as an ex-marine about the fact that in order to speak publicly about the issues he is raising he most often finds himself in crowds full of radicals and pacifists. He talked about the US constitution and how it was mostly written by one left wing guy and one right wing guy who hated each other and that it is all about freedom of speech and that reasoned debate was one of the things that the US stands for (or at least it used to). I neglected to mention that it was written by 50 white males, the vast majority of which were wealthy landowners and that it semi-legitimised slavery and therefore did not include as much room for debate as is popularly supposed.

That day he was talking about plans for Iran that were already at an advanced stage. Just like before the Iraq confrontation his information and output appear excellent, even if you disagree with his historical analysis.

I hope I bump into him again, only without a microphone - and without a hangover.

Here is what he said regarding Iran in 2005

Here is what he said in 2006

Here is what he said in 2007