I came across this Scott Ritter interview on Truthout a while back and some of what he said really stood out.The abject apathy of the US citizenry has always astounded me and I have always wondered what will it take for them to march and say they won’t take it anymore. For those that don’t know who Scott Ritter is; he was a UN weapons inspector and was shouting from rooftops that Iraq didn’t have any weapons of mass destruction before the invasion of Iraq, but alas our “fair and balanced” media was more interested in being cheerleaders for the invasion.

Here, Ritter tries to explain why there is no real public outrage about what is going on and the opposition to the Iraq war:

It’s difficult to explain [the opposition]. First of all you have to note, from the public side, that very few Americans actually function as citizens anymore. What I mean by that are people who invest themselves in this country, people who care, who give a damn. Americans are primarily consumers today, and so long as they continue to wrap themselves in the cocoon of comfort, and the system keeps them walking down a road to the perceived path of prosperity, they don’t want to rock the boat. If it doesn’t have a direct impact on their day-to-day existence, they simply don’t care.There’s a minority of people who do, but the majority of Americans don’t. And if the people don’t care – and remember, the people are the constituents – if the constituents don’t care, then those they elect to higher office won’t feel the pressure to change.

Read the whole interview here. On the same topic, also read what Iacocca has to say; where the hell is our outrage:

“Am I the only guy in this country who’s fed up with what’s happening?” Iacocca writes. “Where the hell is our outrage? We should be screaming bloody murder. We’ve got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff, we’ve got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we can’t even clean up after a hurricane much less build a hybrid car. But instead of getting mad, everyone sits around and nods their heads when the politicians say, ‘Stay the course.’”

Good reading. I doubt whether it makes any difference to anyone whatsoever anymore, but it is good to see that there are still people who aren’t afraid to speak the truth.