The first âwar councilâ opened late Monday, February 17, in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, with the âhuman shieldsâ planning to select their targets carefully and split up into different units while coordinating the action once the battle gets underway. Oh, I am so inspired! What're they gonna do?
For Ben, a 25-year-old American, there's a lot of work to be done. "We have no plan. We don't have an organization. We don't have a leadership," he admitted at the opening of a first war council of the "human shields" who have come to Baghdad.
Oooh. That's the very best way to do things!
Their ambitions run high. They hope to prevent thousands of tons of U.S. bombs raining down on Iraq at the launch of any campaign to (allegedly) overthrow President Saddam Hussein for allegedly concealing banned arms programs in defiance of the United Nations. Gathered in a smoke-filled hall of a Baghdad hotel, they have come from around the world in a bid to keep at bay the armada mobilized around Iraq by the United States and Britain.
"Never fear, Sammy! We are here to save you!"
"Yeah. Whatever. Mahmoud, find them some space over by the ammo dump... uh... grade school."
Westerners in Palestinian keffiyehs (head covers) and dungarees mingle with Islamic scarves worn by young women from Turkey, as some 30 activists huddle in a circle to debate how to combat the mighty war machine. "We have to decide where, when and how we want to be human shields," he told the meeting on the first floor of the Andalous Hotel.
Lemme see here. "Where" would be Iraq. "When" would be now, probably until the first armaments start arriving. Then "where" switches to Jordan. "How" is, from the footage I saw on the teevee this morning, ostenatiously, which could result in howling mobs of indignant locals stringing them up when Sammy's gone, if they don't make it to Jordan.
John Ross, 65, surveys the meeting with one eye, the other one hidden behind a black patch since he lost it in an accident. A veteran fighter for causes, he wears his white hair in a pony-tail. "We are here to protect the
One of those guys whose business cards describe them as a "poet"...
For the resident of Mexico who renounced U.S. citizenship, the Iraq crisis brings back memories of Vietnam. "I was the first conscientious objector to be sent to prison. I went to jail on August 4, 1964," just three days before Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin resolution which launched the Vietnam war, he said.
Maybe he'll be lucky and get killed in this one, but I doubt it...
A translator is busy at work for the hefty contingent from Turkey, as the chief of staff meets to draw up a plan of action for the 200 or so human shields who have arrived so far in the Iraqi capital.
"Mahmoud!"
"Yeah, boss!"
"Put this batch down by the sarin... uh... baby milk factory."
Gordon, a young and athletic man, reasons that they should be careful with the choice of sites to be protected. "We should choose the best sites. If we go to a purification plant, it should be the one that produces the best water," he recommends to his fellow human shields.
If you go to an explosive depot, make sure it's high explosives, okay?