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Iraq
’Human shields’ find things not all they seem
2003-02-21
A rather jaunty sign advertising the grimmest of tasks was pinned up on a small noticeboard labelled "Human Shields" in the lobby of the Andalus Hotel Apartments in Baghdad on Thursday. It sought three extra volunteers to join the 13 already committed to living at the Baghdad South Power Plant to try to prevent it being bombed in the event of war. "There is no more important place for a shield to be," the notice read.
Unless it's next door to the ammo dump, of course...
Volunteers from half a dozen nations expect to move into a collective dorm room tomorrow at the power plant, a site suggested to them by the Iraqi Government. Since arriving this month they have been touring hospitals, water treatment plants and other installations critical to the civilian population. "They have shown us a number of sites and one of them was this power station," said Godfrey Meynell, 68, a professional an anti-war activist from Britain. "It seems to me that if the electricity is cut then water treatment suffers, hospitals suffer. Of course America appears to have become so immoral now that there are few chances of it making the slightest bit of difference."
America's become so immoral we want to stop Sammy from killing people at random and gobbling up any small countries around him.
Participants rejected US threats that use of human shields, albeit voluntary, would be a war crime. "That is ridiculous," said Ken Nichols O'Keefe, 33, a Gulf War marine veteran who initiated the idea. "They are not using me; I am here voluntarily."
OK, traitor, we'll remember that.
The Iraqi Government is paying to house the volunteers in small hotels in Baghdad and setting up free telephone lines and internet access so they can lobby the folks back home.
Monitored, of course.
Western diplomats wonder, however, whether the Iraqi Government, once besieged, will want the public relations headache the shields will undoubtedly represent. Some of the volunteers also have their doubts. "We fear they will keep us together and then push us out at the last minute," Mr Meynell said.
Push you in front of their troops, more likely.
Others have become aware of the sinister side of what some say they naively interpreted as a kind of extraordinary war protest. "I think the Iraqi Government is potentially putting us in a dangerous position," said a young Australian who had decided to leave.
"Plus, the chicks are not as cute as I thought they'd be"
The shields stress that they came to protect civilians and not to support the Iraqi Government, but the distinctions get blurred. One American peace advocate recalled a typical march where the Westerners chanting anti-war slogans were suddenly joined by dozens of Iraqis holding pictures of Saddam. "It changed the spirit of the march, that wasn't what we expected," said one of the volunteers.
What exactly did you expect, asshole?
Posted by:Steve

#13  ""On enemy turf and being sponsored by them. Sounds like treason to me. Ask Tokyo Rose about that." well of course theyre not on enemy turf, since we havent gone to war yet."

Actually, we are currently at war, under a ceasefire agreement from 1991, so yes, treason is a valid observation. But it is a war between Iraq and the UN, so I can't see anyone suffering prosecution, unless they wilfully interfere with the US military, something I would not put past any of these idiots.
Posted by: john   2003-02-21 19:25:28  

#12  Reminds me of the scene in Animal House, "Hey, it's the Iraqis!!! They LOVE us!!!"
Posted by: tu3031   2003-02-21 15:47:58  

#11  I hope you all are reading Where is Raed? (http://dear_raed.blogspot.com)

If not, you should.

Latest entry includes this:
One of the latest group to arrive in Baghdad, mostly Europeans, were welcomed to the Rasheed hotel , which is like the Waldorf Astoria of Baghdad, no other hotel is more expensive and exclusive. All of them were wearing T-shirts with what was supposed to be "Human Shields" in Arabic, but they had it all wrong it said "Adra'a Basharia" instead of "Duru'u Basharia" which got them a few giggles and a new name; they are now the "Adra'a" just to show how clueless they are. A lot of funny Arabic these days with all these HS's running around, a van with a foreign number plate standing near the ministry of information has "No War" written all over it in many languages the biggest in Arabic. All over the front of it is says "La Harba" which is wrong and sounds like a night club, my cousin thought that was cute. Anyway, what really got my goat this time was finding out that they get food coupons worth 15,000 dinars per meal, 3 for every day.fifteen thousan.
Do you know how much the monthly food ration for a 4 person family is worth, for a whole month not per meal (real cost, not subsidized) ? 30,000 dinars, if you get someone to buy the bad rice they give you for a decent price. 15,000. What are they eating? A whole lamb every meal? Let's put this within context. Today in the morning Raed, our friend G. and I went for a late big breakfast we had 2 tishreeb bagilas (can't explain that, you have to be an Iraqi to get it otherwise it sounds inedible) and a makhlama (which is an omelet with minced meat), tea, fizzy drinks and argila afterwards (the water-pipe-thingy) all for 4,750 dinars, and we were not going super cheap. A lunch in any above-average restaurant will not be more than 8,000 dinars and that includes everything. 15,000 thousand is a meal in a super expensive restaurant in Arasat Street, in one of those places that really almost have an "only foreigners allowed, no Iraqis welcome unless you are UN staff" sign on it. I will stop calling them tourist when they stop taking all this pampering from the Iraqi government.

--

These morons have no clue.
Posted by: growler   2003-02-21 13:44:22  

#10  "On enemy turf and being sponsored by them. Sounds like treason to me. Ask Tokyo Rose about that."

well of course theyre not on enemy turf, since we havent gone to war yet. They're only traitors once the shooting starts. And i think once that happens, unlike tokyo rose, theyll have difficulty getting their message out.
Posted by: liberalhawk   2003-02-21 13:39:54  

#9  The only thing they'll be protecting is the bar at the Al Rasheed...
Posted by: tu3031   2003-02-21 13:30:24  

#8  a young Australian who had decided to leave
Aparently one of the smarter idiots. I wonder how many of the dumbest ones will only "protect" a hospital or the hotel they're staying in.
Posted by: RW   2003-02-21 13:26:32  

#7  What absolute idiots. I think the only thing that will get through to other like minded idiotarians will be to watch this batch get turned into pizza topping.
Posted by: Rex Mundi   2003-02-21 12:33:16  

#6  Thay have net access? Any e-mail addys? I'm sure the boys in the backroom over at NSA would like to send them some congrats on successfully infiltrating the Baghdad area...
Posted by: mojo   2003-02-21 11:07:59  

#5  Darwin Award first-place winners. Too bad Baldwin, Sheen and Sontag and Penn couldn't join them. Via con Dios, amigos. Adios.
Posted by: becky   2003-02-21 10:48:51  

#4  Sounds like they have started to realize that "In the great Scheme of things they aren't worth the sweat of my testicals.Maybe the Holywood peacenicks should join them at the power plant.
Posted by: raptor   2003-02-21 10:32:36  

#3  The Iraqi Government is paying to house the volunteers in small hotels in Baghdad and setting up free telephone lines and internet access so they can lobby the folks back home.

On enemy turf and being sponsored by them. Sounds like treason to me. Ask Tokyo Rose about that.
Posted by: tu3031   2003-02-21 10:11:39  

#2  Too bad the "second-thoughts" crowd of naive dupes human shields cannot get their stories out on the mass media. Instead of just plain idiots, they can be useful idiots as a learning tool to people who need to learn the basics of making good life decisions.
Posted by: Alaska Paul   2003-02-21 09:52:40  

#1  "I think the Iraqi Government is potentially putting us in a dangerous position,"

GOOD GOD! How unbelievably stupid do you have to be to travel across a quarter of the world saying you want to be a "human shield" and not realize that could be DANGEROUS?!
Posted by: Robert Crawford   2003-02-21 09:36:23  

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