I Was A Human Shield In Iraq

Ryan Clancy

[Ryan C]

Sen. Lindsey Graham recently called our actions as Human Shields "treasonous" and hopes to see us punished for more than the ten years in jail and $1 million in fines that the law currently allows for. He said that we were "giving aid and comfort to the enemy." I was not comforting the enemy – I was comforting the Iraqi people. The only aid that I provided was construction paper and crayons for children, and I did so fairly confident that they would not be used to make weapons of mass destruction.

Opposing this war is not treasonous. When I made the decision to go to Iraq, I did so in part because of concern for my country, and the planet. In calling for war, and forcing other countries to choose whether to be "with us or against us," we have thrown away a century of diplomacy. We are losing allies because of this issue in a time when we need them the most. In calling for war, I am terrified, as an American, that our country will again become the victim of terrorist acts or hostilities from other countries.

If we attack Iraq, we lose any moral high ground that we once had, and I am terrified of the consequences. If we set the precedent that countries can be justifiably attacked because we don't agree with them and they have weapons of mass destruction, I am afraid that we will become the next target. We have weapons of mass destruction, and there are many countries out there that don't agree with us.

Saddam Hussein is a terrible and unjust ruler, and the idea that any Human Shield supports him is completely untrue. I traveled to Iraq to support the Iraqi people, not the leader that happens to be in power there. I do not support Saddam, and it would be a great thing for the country and the world if he was not in power. Likewise, though, I do not support Bush, but I would oppose any foreign effort to remove our President from power. Our country cannot continue to install and remove regimes when it is politically expedient for us to do so.

As I set foot back in the United States, a passport control officer said to me "You went to Iraq? Are you nuts? All those people hate us!"

I didn't know where to begin.

As Americans, we seem unable to differentiate between other cultures and the governments of other cultures. We are not going to war with the Iraqi people, just Saddam, and yet we are contemplating sending thousands of missiles into Baghdad, killing a massive amount of civilians.

The Iraqi people do not seem to have the same conceptual problem. When I was in Baghdad, I was thanked by people in tears, and welcomed into the homes of the people there. Even the families ravaged by sanctions and poverty would share the little food that they had with me, even knowing that I was from a country whose stated aim is to bomb them back into the stone age. It was humbling and overwhelming, and I can't help thinking that, if the situations were reversed, that we might not be so kind.

I am proud to be an American, but terribly afraid of what my country is about to do to the people of Iraq.

I went to Baghdad not with the certainty that our presence there would stop a war, but knowing that there was little else I could do to try, and that the alternative was to sit at home and do nothing. I had to meet the people that my country was about to bomb, and to humanize them when and if I got back home.

When I was in Iraq, I visited several schools. In one high-school classroom, I asked the students to write letters to students in American classrooms. Marwa Quism, age 13, wrote "Dear American student... I hope there will be no war between us, and I hope we will be friends. Governments want war between us... we want peace. I like you, and we don't know why you don't like us..."

The people in Iraq may hate our foreign policy, and what the sanctions have done to their country, but they do not hate us.

In elementary classrooms, I asked the children to draw their homes and families. An eight-year-old drew his family, his home, and a missile in the sky, aimed at his house. There is no proper response when a child shows you a picture like that; I complimented the drawing, apologized for my country, and cried, later, for the first time in many years.

It is much more difficult for people to bomb abstract enemies than it is to bomb 13 year-old Marwa, who wants to be our friend. It does not look as if Bush will allow this war to be stopped. If I can facilitate communication between Marwa in Iraq and Bill in America, though, perhaps we can avert a war a generation from now. If I can play some small part in dispelling the myth that "they" hate "us", then this movement was not a failure.

[sport]

Why id not the sob complete their mission and stay to stop a bomb or bullet?

They had the chance to make the world a better place and blew it.

In closing, I agree with Lindsey Graham in part. My take is that they should be hung from telephone pole by the neck instead of being imprisoned.

[TxBec]

they're calling ya, bud

[CheneyChick]

Ryan C signed up 2003-03-17.
This account has been banned.

That didn't take long.

[Paulus Invictus]

And they are all endeared to us now? Where have you been since 9/11? Idiot!

[Jonah Hex]

[Oldeconomybuyer]

In calling for war ... we have thrown away a century of diplomacy.

Diplomacy was "thrown away" on 9/11.

[VRWCmember]

From your posts thus far, it looks like your IQ is about the same as the temperature implied by your screen name.

[doug from upland]

Foolishness beyond words. How many people who don't want war in Iraq have been murdered by their leader?

[ijcr]

You know this because:-

1.You have Al-Queda suspects under interrogation.

2.You have reports from over 100 senior defectors from the Iraqi regime.

3.You are the proud owner of a 2 metre satellite system.

4.You have all the telephone and fax transmissions since 1998.

5.You have access to the e-mails of the two parties.

6. You have converted a double decker bus into a U-2 and are doing overflights.

7.Saddamm said so.

8. Ramsey Clark said so.

9. Hans Blix said so.

10. The New York Times said so.

Armed with these facts you make a convincing case.

[wbill]

.....From the CBS Report.....

"My mother, her first reaction was, um, 'I'm incredibly proud of you,'" says Clancy. "Her second reaction was concern for my safety."

Things did not go as well with his father.

"My father went the other way: He accused me of siding with the enemy," says Clancy. "He called me a terrorist. That was the last call I made before I left the states."

Goes to show two things:

1.There are three certainties in life: death, taxes, and a mother's love.

2.This article confirms what most of us suspected.....protesters hate their fathers.

[CindyDawg]

I apologize to any "normal" teachers here that I might offend but it seems like a lot of troubled people that I meet are public school teachers and many of those are in counseling postions.

Where do these people get the money to take off and do stuff like this? Don't they have families to support and bills to pay? I have a hard enough time just getting off for a day to attend FR events.

[Jonah Hex]

OK, my chance for a Cockney linguistics question. (smile)

Is it "She's a silly berk", or "She's a silly berke"? In other words, is there an silent "e"?

Thanks!

[Thinkin' Gal]

"I'll be here until the bombs drop," says volunteer Ryan Clancy.

Among the hundred or so who have volunteered, 26-year-old Clancy is among 15 camping out inside a Baghdad power plant. Clancy is a high school English teacher from Wisconsin, and he's left one troubled family behind.

"My mother, her first reaction was, um, 'I'm incredibly proud of you,'" says Clancy. "Her second reaction was concern for my safety."

Things did not go as well with his father.

"My father went the other way: He accused me of siding with the enemy," says Clancy. "He called me a terrorist. That was the last call I made before I left the states."

[MadIvan]

No silent e. :)

Regards, Ivan

[eyespysomething]

What's funny, is that no one here hates the Iraqi people and doesn't wish them any harm, in fact we would like them to live as close as possible to free as we do.
When you were in Iraq, did you ask any officials why they were allowing the oppression of Iraqis to continue? Why they were supporting a man who has violated so so so many human rights? The contention that the United States is on par with Iraq (or should I say their leaders) is obscene. We are in no way the bad guy here. It is hard to do things which aren't popular, or that have to be done before the positive can be seen, but if this were a popularity contest, we would sit around wallowing(sp?) in pity from 9-11, instead on getting the job done.
And for people who think Iraq and 9-11 have no connection, the connection is there are people who hate us, and some of them have WMD, and some of them are willing to use WMD on us, and we cannot allow this to happen. If you think we can leave our troops over there indefinantly to continue pressure on Saddam Hussein, that is insane. If you think he is going to change his ways, that is insane. So what's it going to be? Us or them?

[NordP]

Even your name, "Ryan" means "little King" and it seems you're living up to it. You believe in your own little kingdom where all is grand and wonderful. THIS is the real world, young soul. This is a world where brutal, evil people have horrible weapons, and some brave leaders care enough about world peace to show that we have the strength and moral fiber to challenge those that choose to hurt and mame others, to stop.

If you were a true lover of America, you would have told those children that our fight is noT with them, but rather with the madman that would take those children and torture them in front of their parents on a sadistic whim.

We need to liberate Iraq for the sake of the future of those very children you visited - some of us understand that.

LET'S ROLL!

[eyespysomething]

That is a very thoughtful reply. I hope this person reads it.

[Prysson]

Your sophistry does not shield your from the reality of your actions. In going to Iraq and offering yourself as a "human shield" you in fact aid the enemy. You do this willingly in an attempt to damage the United States and it s interests. In short you had two sides to choose from and you did not choose your own nations. People like you who wish to cloud the issue with all sorts of relativistic logic can not hide from reality. Personally, I think it is a shame that our nation is going to allow you to get away with it.

Senator Graham is right. You are a traitor. You should be punished as one. Your feeble argument that you gave crayons to children is irrelevant. It wasn’t the giving of crayons that was your true mission. If that was the case you could have done so at any point over the past twelve years. "Humanitarianism" is not now and has never been your central guiding motive. Claiming otherwise makes you not just a traitor but a coward and liar. Of course we should expect no less of you. Obviously you do not have the courage of your convictions or you would still be in Iraq where you belong. You have shown your cowardice and your true motive. You motive has always been to thwart U.S. objectives as it seeks to secure its national security and interests. That’s why you aren’t in Iraq right now as a "Human Shield" You mission isn’t going to work. The war is on and you cant stop it so no sense in risking your life for it now.

Incidentally you and others like you should take a lesson from you foolishness. Underlying all of your rhetoric is a great huge lie. You claim you want to be a human shield and protect innocents from being targeted by U.S. bombs. But you insistence on shielding schools and Hospitals and you utter refusal to shield power plants and other pieces of vital infrastructure reveals the lie in your mission. You actually do know that U.S. will not intentionally target schools and hospitals despite your idiotic rhetoric. That is why you are willing to position yourself there and not in other vital locations where you know bombs will in fact be dropped.

So you not only are a traitor, you are a coward, a liar and a joke. Maybe we shouldn't worry about charging you with treason after all. You are a pathetic enough person with being punished.

[Jonah Hex]

OK, got it. Thanks!

"Ryan C. is a useless stupid berk."

:-)

[hope]

I truly believe it all began with a number of democrats who have aided the enemy and emboldened Saddam by going on foreign soil even as far as Iraqui soil and called our president a liar..I don't recall any democrat chastising them for it. Their cause may be the reason for the delay in Iraq..They made it a political war against our president and God help us if one democrat of this mind set ever gets elected to the WH.