Besides, it's so much fun to give them the
:-)
Posted on 03/17/2003 6:31:47 AM PST by 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.
What arrogance for you to believe these people needs shields?? Who the hell are you to determine who or what needs to be shielded???
It's all about you...it always has been...it always will be.
Secondly, what in hell do you think we SHOULD do to endear ourselves to them?
Third, show me a Muslim democracy and how it allows themselves CHOICES on ANY matter of importance.
BUT! there is going to be a big surge of disrupters and troublemakers in the next few days, signing up with new accounts, posting silliness or rumors or war disinformation hit or miss, and otherwise screwing up this great forum for all of us, loyal conservative pro-American posters and lurkers alike.
I think this is a case in favor of JR temporarily freezing all new signups for at least two weeks from today, well into the war.
Sure, it might cut down on new Freepers who want to post patriotic stuff, but perhaps they should have joined us months and years ago.
Again, this could be temporary and would for sure keep the disruption down. And once liberated Iraq is well underway, and stability is returned, there will be little interest by anti-war lib types to harrass this site.
It will, for sure, keep the anti American jokers out of this forum. I know it is a bit drastic, but when I see this antiAmerican crup posted, I go to the poster's name, and invariably see that they have signed up 'today'; why let them ruin our website?
Besides, it's so much fun to give them the
:-)
I was referring my reply to the top of the page, thinking it was #1-Ryan, not realizing it was #101,oyez.
.
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.Human shields in Iraq try to make war personal
Reuters AlertNet, UK - 04 Mar 2003
AMMAN, March 4 (Reuters) - Outraged by the prospect of a US war on Iraq, Ryan Clancy
left his music shop in the United States and put himself in harm's way in ...
Milwaukee Man Serves As Human Shield In Iraq
WISC, WI - 26 Feb 2003
... US weapons. Ryan Clancy, 26, is part of a group hoping its presence
will prevent the United States from bombing Iraq. After high ...
Taking A Dramatic Stand On Iraq
CBS News - 25 Feb 2003
... between bombs and the Iraqi people. "I'll be here until the bombs
drop," says volunteer Ryan Clancy. Among the hundred or so who ...
Iraqis, Americans Mourn Victims of 1991 US Raid
ABC News - 19 Feb 2003
... said Cliff Kindy, a farmer. Ryan Clancy said he would stay in Iraq
to act as a human shield if war erupts. "I would like to stay ...
Anxiety as US readies for war
Straits Times, Singapore - 28 Feb 2003
... cent. English teacher Ryan Clancy from Wisconsin is in Baghdad to
act as a 'human shield' to protect Iraqis from American bombs. ...
'Human Shields' Take Stand in Baghdad
Washington Post - 24 Feb 2003
... runway expansion. One American, Ryan Clancy, an English teacher from
Milwaukee, said he has never attended a street demonstration. "I ...
Aussies line up with the other coalition of the willing
Sydney Morning Herald, Australia - 23 Feb 2003
... Ryan Clancy, a 26-year-old US teacher and spokesman for the group, said:
"As a linguistics major I have a problem with the term human shield. ...
'Human shields' takes up position in Baghdad
The Age, Australia - 23 Feb 2003
... Ryan Clancy, 26, an American teacher and spokesman for the group, said: "As
a linguistics major I have a problem with the term 'human shield'. ...
US AND UK SEEK NEW RESOLUTION AGAINST IRAQ
KFMB, CA - 24 Feb 2003
... some measure of support for them on the ground and say to them I'm an American I'm
not against you it's only our governments,” said human shield, Ryan Clancy ...
I assume that you do know that Saddam has one of the worlds most sophisticated and brutal internal security apparatus and according to Amnesty Intl., at least 1000 Iraqi 'dissidents' are murdered by these thugs each month. If you do know that, you would also know that Saddam studied both Hitler's Germany and Stalin's USSR before he took power, and has emulated both of those horrendous regimes in fashioning his internal terror squads.
Knowing those two facts, you as a "human shield" have in fact aided Saddam. The Iraqi people are virtually powerless to stand up to him, just as the Russian people were powerless to stand up to Stalin's purges that killed tens of millions of Rusian civilians. Yet you would leave certain death that as their only alternative to Saddam.
Moving into the Buy a Clue category, why do you think it is that Saddam insisted that you "shields" protect power plants and military installation as opposed to hospitals and schools as you insisted? Could it be that Saddam knows that we have no need or desire to bomb purely civilian infrastructure? We will surely spend resources knocking out military targets and taking down the Iraqi power grid. That is a no brainer. We will not spend our munitions or risk our men to destroy purely civilian targets which we will only have to rebuild in a few months. That makes no sense. Could it also be that Saddam does not want you to see him erecting military radar on hospital roofs or scud missile launchers in school yards in direct violation of the laws of war?
I suppose it's a lot of fun wearing your heart on your sleeve, but all you have done is add to the suffering of the Iraqi people. If you had as much brain as you do hubris, you would be ashamed of your actions.
People like you with your naive view would leave the world in total chaos.
My advice is please stay out of the way.
LOL
They will stop at nothing. Does that mean if we do nothing they will stop.
What about the consequences of not attacking?
When I was in Baghdad, I was thanked by people in tears, and welcomed into the homes of the people there.
That's because at first blush, bub, you're a LIBERATOR to them.
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.
You could.........get a job?
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.
Ryan. Hello Ryan. Could it be that this kid is buying what he has been told by a free-press challenged government dictatorship? (Or maybe he was watching CNN?)
I complimented the drawing, apologized for my country, and cried, later, for the first time in many years.
You people are such girly-boys..........Bill?.......Bill Clinton is that you?
Or you could have cared enough about both America and the Iraqi people to be part of the solution instead of part of the problem. There are many young men who are at this very moment in harm's way to preserve your right to be an idiot and to give your Iraqi friends a taste of some of the same freedoms you have always enjoyed, but you would begrudge them that in the interest of preserving the reign of terror of Saddam and his brutal and barbaric sons. I think you need to re-evaluate your priorities.
You are not only misguided, you're naive an idiot as well.
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