Scott Ritter

William Scott Ritter Jr. is an American former Marine Corps intelligence officer who served from 1984 and reached the rank of captain, working as a ballistic-missile intelligence adviser to General Norman Schwarzkopf during Desert Storm. From 1991 to 1998 he was a weapons inspector for the United Nations Special Commission in Iraq, leading more than a dozen of its missions, and he resigned in August 1998 in protest at the Security Council’s failure to enforce them. He argued publicly before the 2003 invasion that Iraq had no meaningful weapons of mass destruction, which proved correct. His books include Endgame (1999), War on Iraq (2002), Frontier Justice (2003), Iraq Confidential (2005), Target Iran (2006), Dangerous Ground (2010) and Disarmament in the Time of Perestroika (2022).

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Where they stand

A short read of where Scott Ritter lands on each front we follow, drawn from their recent appearances and refreshed whenever they turn up in a debrief.

Iran

Says the United States outright lost its recent war with Iran, with no regime change, no control of the strait and no rollback of the nuclear or missile programmes, and that depleted munition stocks mean Washington cannot credibly strike again before the midterms.

as of 2026-09-21

Ukraine & Russia

Says a post-election Putin has a free political hand and will take the gloves off, that Russia has already wrecked half of Ukrainian warehouse capacity and 70 percent of its energy production, and that Ukraine ceases to be a habitable country this winter.

as of 2026-09-21

Israel

Says the Netanyahu speech at the UN is self-serving theatre timed to his own election, that American public support for Israel is collapsing, and that a Saudi collapse hands Iran a regional vacuum Israel cannot counter.

as of 2026-09-21

American power

Says NATO and Europe are militarily hollow and stumbling toward a war with Russia the way Europe did in 1914, and that the likely collapse of Saudi Arabia marks a broader US retreat from the Middle East it cannot reverse.

as of 2026-09-21

The global economy

Says Houthi and Iranian control of Bab al-Mandab and Hormuz plus the shuttered Saudi east-west pipeline is pushing diesel toward 7 dollars a gallon and Brent above 120 dollars a barrel, straining the US and European economies while Russia banks 90 to 100 billion dollars in extra oil income this year.

as of 2026-09-21

Recent appearances

Ukraine Running Out of Time

Judging Freedom · 2026-09-21

2026-09-16 · Dialogue Workswatch ↗

Houthis down a Saudi F-15 in Marib; Riyadh’s frustration with Trump grows

2026-09-09 · Daniel Davis / Deep Divewatch ↗

The real prize lies beyond Ukraine for Putin and Trump (w/ Daniel Davis)

~2026-09-12 · Dialogue Workswatch ↗

Iran fires an 'unstoppable' missile; the US Navy and Jordan under dual attack