| What do you think of peace advocates staying in Iraq now? |
 |
|
|
| Love it. | ||
 |
33% | |
|
||
| Hate it. | ||
 |
48% | |
|
||
| Don't know. | ||
 |
18% | |
Posted on 03/10/2003 9:44:27 AM PST by jwalburg
We have 'crash kits' with us at all times with enough survival gear for a week.
Christian Peacemaker Teams, a program of Brethren, Quaker and Mennonite Churches, has posted volunteers in Iraq since Oct 25, 2002. More recently, additional delegations have gone to Iraq to educate the public and "get in the way" of potential military attacks. This is a diary by American and Canadian volunteers who are now in Iraq. The second entry is from Cliff Kindy of North Manchester, Ind.
Thursday, March 6
by Cliff Kindy
More than 120 Human Shields have gathered from 34 countries to be a witness against the escalating war against Iraq. Their incentive came from the horror experienced by US veteran Ken O’Keefe in the 1991 Gulf War. They are a dedicated, creative lot of peacemakers.
Cliff Kindy in Iraq Media and war advocates have denigrated the term “human shields” by focusing on times governments have forced persons to go to vulnerable sites, often military, as a barrier to an attack. Forgotten in this mindset is the mother who shields her child from an attacker or a friend who offers his life to save another. This present-day experiment is an offspring of the action of the mother and friend. This experiment in peacemaking was complicated as the volunteers accepted the room and board hospitality of the Iraqi government. The site selection committee of the Human Shields had been visiting sites (water treatment, electrical generation, food storage, oil refinery, and hospitals) to check out living facilities, neighborhood connections, communication capabilities, and compromising factors such as nearby military encampments. Problems escalated as the government tried to push the presence of Shields at certain sites.
The initial response was to pull back even those Human Shields who had gone out to form a united response. Some chose to leave; others wanted to maintain the commitment to the Iraqi people and to work out some compromise to continue what was trusted to be a nonviolent barrier to U.S. attacks on facilities that sustain the civilian infrastructure in Iraq. The dialogue continues in its stumbling fashion.
In mid-February two members of the Iraq Peacemaker Team and one from Christian Peacemaker Teams joined a Human Shield witness at the Ameriyah Shelter as a silent, prayerful protest of that 1991 U.S. bombing of a civilian bomb shelter in a family neighborhood of Baghdad that resulted in 407 deaths. A major U.S. media presence treated that witness kindly. Since last October, IPT/CPT has been visiting similar sites (along with families, churches and universities) to remind the US government that they promised not to target such sites. Banners reminded the military that to target such sites is a war crime.
IPT/CPT continues visiting these sites and is preparing to be a presence should the war escalate. IPT/CPT deaths would be a grim reminder that war usually targets the places where civilians are the ones that die.
(Excerpt) Read more at beliefnet.com ...
Yes, in a way they are like the mother who shields her child from a friend who offers his life to save another.
That will not happen.
Sodamn Insane will launch on Israel.
Israel will respond.
Our troops will have stayed a safe distance from where Baghdad had been.
It [Baghdad] was such a loving, peaceful place that I am sure if George W. Bush and Dick Cheney were forced to spend an hour each day at it, they would start thinking peaceful thoughts.
Oh, brother.
This time he will order the use of his bad stuff.
He won't be in Baghdad when it disappears.
| What do you think of peace advocates staying in Iraq now? |
|
|
|
| Love it. | ||
|
33% | |
|
||
| Hate it. | ||
|
48% | |
|
||
| Don't know. | ||
|
18% | |
Don't you think the Israelis know the location of every one of his palaces? They can take out the palaces with the same precision as they took out the nuclear reactor in '81.
Kinda, sort of, one of them there "Derned if ya do, Derned if ya don't" sutuwmations.
You'd think these peacemakers had stumbled upon Nirvana, or Heaven.
An interesting thing to note, beside the weirdness of this whole statement, was his using the word "forced" in relation to peaceful. Does force bring peace?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.