I WAS A NAIVE FOOL TO BE A HUMAN SHIELD FOR SADDAM!

The Iconoclast ^ | March 23, 2004 | Murray Soupcoff (The Iconoclast)

[Apolitical]

DAILY NOTEBOOK....

I WAS A NAIVE FOOL TO BE A HUMAN SHIELD FOR SADDAM! .......



March 23, 2003: Today's recommended reading, especially for anti-war activists and Hollywood's fifth column, is a first-person essay by former American human shield Daniel Pepper in The Telegraph (U.K.). In a rambling, revelatory self-confession, a mortified Mr. Pepper lets it all hang out, telling just how deceived and deluded he was about Saddam and Iraq.

The opinion piece is entitled, I WAS A NAIVE FOOL TO BE A HUMAN SHIELD FOR SADDAM, and is well worth reading.

Here's some of what ex-human shield Daniel Pepper has to say:

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.............

[Apolitical]

Excellent case study of the naive young people who populate the peace movement.

[Kimlee]

Posted yesterday, but good read

[wasp69]

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.............

Reality is a motherf*#ker, ain't it?

[galt-jw]

did any of the so called activists join any group which is pro iraqi civilian? yeah, these fools really care!

they should have their citizenship revoked, for treason and comfort to the enemy. I am dead serious. It's time to take our country back. The constitution is not a death warrant.

[EdReform]

Bump

[mafree]

I WAS A NAIVE FOOL TO BE A HUMAN SHIELD FOR SADDAM!

You can say that again!

[JimRed]

But, like the Wichita Horror, the Clinton giveaway of military technology to China, the financing of "peace" marches by those who would destroy our nation, the real homosexual agenda, media leftist bias, the irrelevence of the UN and a hundred other dirty truths: those who need to hear it most will not listen, or will discount it as propaganda.

[RWG]

VICE PRESIDENT DICK CHENEY Earned a B.A. in 1965 and a M.A. in 1966, both in political science. Two years later, he won an American Political Science Association congressional fellowship.

How come this is all that is used to describe the VP? With the hollyweird crowd there is the description of career. What about the VP's?

[dennisw]

Wake up schmuck!

[Hobsonphile]

Bump.

[SandRat]

I am just a schmuck

His own words to the poor Taxi driver explains what he was more than even the title.

[First_Salute]

Bump.

[Eala]

Excellent case study of the naive young people who populate are preyed on by the peace movement.

At least this one escaped, now awake.

[Howlin]

Must read bump!

[freekitty]

I am so glad this guy came forward. There is hope. I believe the goal of these anti-war groups is creating a world government. The leaders of these groups care little about the suffering of people that goes on under these regimes. It's obvious that they recruit people who have little use for the thought process. And they ought to run people like Oprah Winfrey right out of the country. She's so busy dancing and singing up a storm with people like Mandela and Mugabe while the less fortunate in South Africa are being murdered, starved and tortured. Excuse me for bringing Oprah up; but I just don't believe she is all she pretends to be.

[deport]

Daniel Pepper article from yesterday If anyone is interested in reading the comments...

[Freedom2specul8]

Thanks Howlin..

[Lady Jag]

People told him he was a naive fool before he went. But he didn't listen. He had to find out for himself that he is a naive fool. Methinks he will continue to rediscover this about himself.

[Bahbah]

Maybe, just maybe, those who are merely niave can be awakened, even if it's one by one. That this guy is back talking to his other equally deluded buudies is a good thing.

[Sabertooth]

Thanks for posting this. Here's the unexcerpted letter...

DAILY NOTEBOOK....


I WAS A NAIVE FOOL TO BE A HUMAN SHIELD FOR SADDAM! .......


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.

The Iconoclast

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