From http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/02/24/eveningnews/main541713.shtml
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.
You were saying?
You display the same faulty thinking that others like you share. Your heart MAY be in the right place, but your beliefs are based on erroneous assumptions and false interpretations of the facts. If you posted here to stir up emotional reactions like many board-disruptors have done before you, I hope you don't come back.
If you hang around a while and "read to understand" the information posted here, you'll realize you're dead wrong.
That's true It will probably only endear about three-fourths of them to us.
A poll of everyday Iranians shows that the great majority of them believe we are doing a good thing by taking Saddam the Sadist out. The vast majority of everyday Iraqis will also approve, but more joyously, and after the fact (when they no longer fear being shot by Saddam).
Why you jerks support an insane madman like Saddam and his predations on ordinary Muslims is a mystery for the ages.
The Ballad of Sir Robin
Bravely bold Sir Robin rode forth from Camelot.
He was not afraid to die, O brave Sir Robin.
He was not at all afraid to be killed in nasty ways,
Brave, brave, brave, brave Sir Robin!
He was not in the least bit scared to be mashed into a pulp,
Or to have his eyes gouged out and his elbows broken,
To have his kneecaps split and his body burned away
And his limbs all hacked and mangled, brave Sir Robin!
His head smashed in and his heart cut out
And his liver removed and his bowels unplugged
And his nostrils raped and his bottom burned off
And his pen--
--Monthy Python and the Holy Grail
So's your argument. Abu Nidal, Abu Abbas, Zwahiri, HAmas , Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, Ansar al Islam....
The list is endless. Husseins support of and sanctuary for terrorists who can't get refuge elsewhere is legendary.
Your thought processes are prejudiced and biased. You allow the Iraqi people the ability to hate our government and not our people, but you don't allow for the possibility that the US is only attacking Saddam, and not the people.
You say things like "I fear what we are going to do to the Iraqi people." We are not attacking the people, we are attacking Saddam Hussein's tyrannical regime. If the Iraqi people would take a short 10 day "vacation" outside of Baghdad, they will live.
To us, you appear just as deluded as that airport security guard when you refuse to recognize the evil of tyrannical, murderous government.
You've come to the right place to get honest information and debate about the issues that concern you. You care about the Iraqi people, or you wouldn't have gone to Iraq. So you're misinformed, but not unfeeling.
You care about peace...that's plain because you have put yourself in a dangerous situation in the name of peace, but have you considered the concept of enduring, long-term peace?
My sincere advice is to lay low, take your lumps on this post, and read, read, read. FR participants are some of the most informed, articulate people you'll cyber-meet. I learn something new on this board nearly every day, and often find that my previous bedrock thoughts and beliefs are modified because of the honest debate that goes on here.
Don't assume you're right on everything, and be willing to debate issues with an open mind. No cause is hopeless.
I think the Viking Kittens are napping....this was just as good
"I'll be here until the bombs drop," says volunteer Ryan Clancy.
That pretty much sums it up.
Correction...you had a vacation in Iraq this year, then got your ass home to the United States as soon as it got a bit 'uncomfortable and dangerous'.
Idiot
The people in Iraq realize the sanctions are Saddam the Sadist's gift to them. They despise Saddam but live in a police state where peaceful change is impossible. We are about to make the impossible possible.
And when they are free, they will remember that leftist idiots such as yourself and Chirac were on Saddam's side.
Ah, a Salon Bolsheviki!
Perhaps some of our graphics-gifted FReepers can design a logo and membership card and we can send the very first card to you.
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