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I was a naive fool to be a human shield for Saddam (MUST, MUST READ!)
The Sunday Telegraph ^ | March 23, 2003 | Daniel Pepper

Posted on 03/22/2003 7:02:58 PM PST by MadIvan

I wanted to join the human shields in Baghdad because it was direct action which had a chance of bringing the anti-war movement to the forefront of world attention. It was inspiring: the human shield volunteers were making a sacrifice for their political views - much more of a personal investment than going to a demonstration in Washington or London. It was simple - you get on the bus and you represent yourself.

So that is exactly what I did on the morning of Saturday, January 25. I am a 23-year-old Jewish-American photographer living in Islington, north London. I had travelled in the Middle East before: as a student, I went to the Palestinian West Bank during the intifada. I also went to Afghanistan as a photographer for Newsweek.

The human shields appealed to my anti-war stance, but by the time I had left Baghdad five weeks later my views had changed drastically. I wouldn't say that I was exactly pro-war - no, I am ambivalent - but I have a strong desire to see Saddam removed.

We on the bus felt that we were sympathetic to the views of the Iraqi civilians, even though we didn't actually know any. The group was less interested in standing up for their rights than protesting against the US and UK governments.

I was shocked when I first met a pro-war Iraqi in Baghdad - a taxi driver taking me back to my hotel late at night. I explained that I was American and said, as we shields always did, "Bush bad, war bad, Iraq good". He looked at me with an expression of incredulity.

As he realised I was serious, he slowed down and started to speak in broken English about the evils of Saddam's regime. Until then I had only heard the President spoken of with respect, but now this guy was telling me how all of Iraq's oil money went into Saddam's pocket and that if you opposed him politically he would kill your whole family.

It scared the hell out of me. First I was thinking that maybe it was the secret police trying to trick me but later I got the impression that he wanted me to help him escape. I felt so bad. I told him: "Listen, I am just a schmuck from the United States, I am not with the UN, I'm not with the CIA - I just can't help you."

Of course I had read reports that Iraqis hated Saddam Hussein, but this was the real thing. Someone had explained it to me face to face. I told a few journalists who I knew. They said that this sort of thing often happened - spontaneous, emotional, and secretive outbursts imploring visitors to free them from Saddam's tyrannical Iraq.

I became increasingly concerned about the way the Iraqi regime was restricting the movement of the shields, so a few days later I left Baghdad for Jordan by taxi with five others. Once over the border we felt comfortable enough to ask our driver what he felt about the regime and the threat of an aerial bombardment.

"Don't you listen to Powell on Voice of America radio?" he said. "Of course the Americans don't want to bomb civilians. They want to bomb government and Saddam's palaces. We want America to bomb Saddam."

We just sat, listening, our mouths open wide. Jake, one of the others, just kept saying, "Oh my God" as the driver described the horrors of the regime. Jake was so shocked at how naive he had been. We all were. It hadn't occurred to anyone that the Iraqis might actually be pro-war.

The driver's most emphatic statement was: "All Iraqi people want this war." He seemed convinced that civilian casualties would be small; he had such enormous faith in the American war machine to follow through on its promises. Certainly more faith than any of us had.

Perhaps the most crushing thing we learned was that most ordinary Iraqis thought Saddam Hussein had paid us to come to protest in Iraq. Although we explained that this was categorically not the case, I don't think he believed us. Later he asked me: "Really, how much did Saddam pay you to come?"

It hit me on visceral and emotional levels: this was a real portrayal of Iraq life. After the first conversation, I completely rethought my view of the Iraqi situation. My understanding changed on intellectual, emotional, psychological levels. I remembered the experience of seeing Saddam's egomaniacal portraits everywhere for the past two weeks and tried to place myself in the shoes of someone who had been subjected to seeing them every day for the last 20 or so years.

Last Thursday night I went to photograph the anti-war rally in Parliament Square. Thousands of people were shouting "No war" but without thinking about the implications for Iraqis. Some of them were drinking, dancing to Samba music and sparring with the police. It was as if the protesters were talking about a different country where the ruling government is perfectly acceptable. It really upset me.

Anyone with half a brain must see that Saddam has to be taken out. It is extraordinarily ironic that the anti-war protesters are marching to defend a government which stops its people exercising that freedom.


TOPICS: Editorial; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events; US: District of Columbia; United Kingdom; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: blair; bush; epiphany; humanshields; iraq; iraqidissidents; saddam; uk; us; war; warlist
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To: JoJo Gunn
Man. Those are some hard core Hate America folks . . .
221 posted on 03/24/2003 1:21:45 PM PST by MeekOneGOP (Bu-bye Saddam! / Check out my Freeper site !: http://home.attbi.com/~freeper/wsb/index.html)
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To: MadIvan
Bump!
222 posted on 03/24/2003 1:22:35 PM PST by k2blader (If one good thing can be said about the UN, it is that it taught me how to spell “irrelevant.”)
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To: nutmeg
BTTT
223 posted on 03/26/2003 1:25:51 PM PST by nutmeg (Liberate Iraq - Support Our Troops!)
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To: TheAngryClam; MS.BEHAVIN
The jerks changed that pic to a gruesome one and I requested it to be removed. G-r-r-r ! . . .

If you've posted that pic anywhere else with the same URL, it needs to be removed I think . . .

224 posted on 03/27/2003 6:41:10 AM PST by MeekOneGOP (Bu-bye Saddam! / Check out my Freeper site !: http://home.attbi.com/~freeper/wsb/index.html)
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To: JoJo Gunn
You were right. They changed it to a gruesome pic now. G-r-r-r ! . . .
225 posted on 03/27/2003 6:42:53 AM PST by MeekOneGOP (Bu-bye Saddam! / Check out my Freeper site !: http://home.attbi.com/~freeper/wsb/index.html)
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To: nicmarlo
He sure sold out to the Iraqis, didn't he nicmarlo? I don't know how people like him can sleep nights. A prison for children? Unimaginable.
226 posted on 03/27/2003 7:08:10 AM PST by Marysecretary (GOD is still in control!)
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To: MeeknMing
May we see the Sodomites just like that in the days ahead.
227 posted on 03/27/2003 7:16:58 AM PST by JoJo Gunn (Help control the Leftist population. Have them spayed or neutered....)
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To: Marysecretary
He sure sold out to the Iraqis, didn't he nicmarlo? I don't know how people like him can sleep nights. A prison for children? Unimaginable.

Scott Ritter is a disgusting sub-human.

228 posted on 03/27/2003 8:09:41 AM PST by nicmarlo
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To: nicmarlo
Yes, he is. I can't fathom people like him. I know he's a sinner who needs salvation but I have little sympathy for him. I'm bad.
229 posted on 03/27/2003 8:38:51 AM PST by Marysecretary (GOD is still in control!)
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To: Marysecretary
I have little sympathy for him. I'm bad.

No, you're not bad; even Jesus said: "Suffer not the little children...."

230 posted on 03/27/2003 8:53:07 AM PST by nicmarlo
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To: MeeknMing

231 posted on 03/27/2003 9:17:39 AM PST by JoJo Gunn (Help control the Leftist population. Have them spayed or neutered....)
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To: JoJo Gunn
Those idiots probably thing NOTHING of the FACT that the enemy Iraqi forces shoot their own troops to force them to fight and have executed British that were captured in recent days. G-r-r-r ! . . .
232 posted on 03/27/2003 10:08:42 AM PST by MeekOneGOP (Bu-bye Saddam! / Check out my Freeper site !: http://home.attbi.com/~freeper/wsb/index.html)
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To: JoJo Gunn
Whoops ! That s/b thinK NOTHING. . .
233 posted on 03/27/2003 10:10:52 AM PST by MeekOneGOP (Bu-bye Saddam! / Check out my Freeper site !: http://home.attbi.com/~freeper/wsb/index.html)
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To: MadIvan
bump
234 posted on 03/27/2003 10:20:43 AM PST by VOA
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To: MeeknMing
You're right. They are terrorist sympathizers, and I have NO DOUBT they CHEER every casuality of ours that hits the news.
235 posted on 03/27/2003 10:21:58 AM PST by JoJo Gunn (Help control the Leftist population. Have them spayed or neutered....)
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To: nicmarlo
Scott Ritter in His Own Words


You've spoke about having seen the children's prisons in Iraq. Can you describe what you saw there?

The prison in question is at the General Security Services headquarters, which was inspected by my team in Jan. 1998. It appeared to be a prison for children — toddlers up to pre-adolescents — whose only crime was to be the offspring of those who have spoken out politically against the regime of Saddam Hussein. It was a horrific scene. Actually I'm not going to describe what I saw there because what I saw was so horrible that it can be used by those who would want to promote war with Iraq, and right now I'm waging peace.


GAH GAH GAH GAH1!!!!!! Does this guy have brain damage? How does he sleep at night?????

SR: Yes I saw horrible things that this regime has done...but this war is just wrong!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I spoke to my boss about the war the day before the deadline, he was anti-war.

We discussed the points, blood for oil, no proof, morality and I rebutted (sp) all his points. (not like i'm some great debater, but some things are obvious and just need pointed out. Pretty much the premise of this article!).

Anyhoo, after all his points were shot down he just says 'Well, i'm not for the war'.

I think this says a LOT about the antis. It's not really about facts, it's about ideology. People refusing to budge from their position even though it's based on...nothing.


236 posted on 03/27/2003 10:24:13 AM PST by Jn316
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To: JoJo Gunn
Let me cross-reference that to a thread with the original pic posted today . . .

Major National Media FReep - A Call to Action



237 posted on 03/27/2003 11:01:29 AM PST by MeekOneGOP (Bu-bye Saddam! / Check out my Freeper site !: http://home.attbi.com/~freeper/wsb/index.html)
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To: JoJo Gunn
. . .and I have NO DOUBT they CHEER every casuality of ours that hits the news.

Yep. One other tidbit I heard on FOX News last night or this morning. The Iraqis are inside hospitals shooting at our troops knowing well we wouldn't dare fire back at a hospital. Yet where is the media outrage at these actions? . . .

Reminds me that there was a relevant Mark Steyn article posted this morning too !

Excerpt:

In so far as the enemy has a strategy, it’s to use their own people as hostages. The ‘pockets of resistance’ in the southern towns have been able to make mischief because they blend in with the local populations. They know that Washington and its allies are concerned above all to avoid casualties among Iraqi civilians and, indeed, among your typical Iraqi conscripts. In other words, everything the Baath regime does is predicated on the moral superiority of their foe. If things were the other way round, if Iraq invaded Vermont and some diehard Yankees holed up on the outskirts of White River Junction and started firing on Saddam’s forces as they attempted to advance up the valley, the Republican Guard would think nothing of levelling the entire downtown area and everyone in it. Who’s going to complain? There’s no Baghdad ‘Not In Our Name’ movement.


238 posted on 03/27/2003 11:12:19 AM PST by MeekOneGOP (Bu-bye Saddam! / Check out my Freeper site !: http://home.attbi.com/~freeper/wsb/index.html)
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To: MadIvan
Bump for the Brits, Baby! Yeah!
239 posted on 03/27/2003 4:17:59 PM PST by TPartyType
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To: MadIvan
And who would have thought the road to Damascus went through Baghdad?
240 posted on 03/27/2003 5:26:54 PM PST by XEHRpa
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