The Cellar
Page 1 of 2 1 2
Show 60 post(s) from this thread on one page

The Cellar (http://cellar.org/index.php)
-   Current Events (http://cellar.org/forumdisplay.php?f=4)
-   -   "I was a naive fool to be a human shield for Saddam" (http://cellar.org/showthread.php?t=3077)

Undertoad 03-22-2003 10:16 PM
"I was a naive fool to be a human shield for Saddam"
 
http://www.portal.telegraph.co.uk/op...3/23/ixop.html

The above link is required reading for all anti-war. Recommended for everyone. A former "human shield" describes his experiences in Baghdad.

Quote:
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.

elSicomoro 03-22-2003 10:31 PM
Of course there are bad things happening in Iraq. One of many places in the world where there are bad things happening. That doesn't mean we had to go in and "liberate" the Iraqi people.

Whit 03-22-2003 11:25 PM
     Of course we have to stand up for third world people. This is the way of the US. We care and protect all. Just look at the way we've lept forward to defend the people of Cambodia... no wait... um... nevermind.

juju 03-23-2003 01:26 AM
Quote:
Originally posted by sycamore
Of course there are bad things happening in Iraq. One of many places in the world where there are bad things happening. That doesn't mean we had to go in and "liberate" the Iraqi people.
Of course we don't have to. But it is the moral thing to do.

elSicomoro 03-23-2003 01:29 AM
By whose morals?

juju 03-23-2003 02:00 AM
Mine, bitch.

elSicomoro 03-23-2003 02:32 AM
Whew! That's reassuring!

jaguar 03-23-2003 05:12 AM
Correct me if i'm wrong but wasen't the whole human shield thing about protecting civvies from allied bombing, not supportin Saddam? I really don't see (unless say the human shield was a clueless moron) how supporting or not Saddam's regime comes into it, even supporting the war or not.

Undertoad 03-23-2003 09:22 AM
I guess it worked - the lights are still on.

Oh wait the human shields have all left.

Undertoad 03-23-2003 09:48 AM
"Naive Fool II" - this time an American, in a paragraph buried in a UPI story about Jordan:

http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=...1-023627-5923r

Quote:
A group of American anti-war demonstrators who came to Iraq with Japanese human shield volunteers made it across the border today with 14 hours of uncensored video, all shot without Iraqi government minders present. Kenneth Joseph, a young American pastor with the Assyrian Church of the East, told UPI the trip "had shocked me back to reality." Some of the Iraqis he interviewed on camera "told me they would commit suicide if American bombing didn't start. They were willing to see their homes demolished to gain their freedom from Saddam's bloody tyranny. They convinced me that Saddam was a monster the likes of which the world had not seen since Stalin and Hitler. He and his sons are sick sadists. Their tales of slow torture and killing made me ill, such as people put in a huge shredder for plastic products, feet first so they could hear their screams as bodies got chewed up from foot to head."

Undertoad 03-23-2003 09:52 AM
And to think about this a slightly different way --

I am easily convinced there isn't a moral duty to stop torture and killing just because one can.

What intrigues me now is why other countries wanted to stop the coalition from stopping torture and killing... almost at any political cost.

They wanted that torture and killing to continue... even if someone else was going to take the responsibility of stopping it... preferring their big oil contracts.

So, isn't "No blood for oil" a really really TERRIBLE anti-war slogan right about now?

jaguar 03-23-2003 02:57 PM
When the war moves to Bagdhad we'll see who dies.

Well i'm glad you can see it in such neat black and white.

MaggieL 03-23-2003 09:55 PM
Quote:
Originally posted by Undertoad

They wanted that torture and killing to continue... even if someone else was going to take the responsibility of stopping it... preferring their big oil contracts.
Not to mention that Iraq hasn't finished paying France for the weapons for their last two wars. Or paid Russia for the stuff they bought from them...except perhaps the night-vision gear and the GPS jammers they bought recently; I suspect that was a cash deal.

warch 03-27-2003 01:55 PM
There are 26 people, not "human shields", that stayed in Baghdad. Iraq Peace Team Of course they report a different take. They have a peace agenda. You can add it to the moral guesswork.

richlevy 03-30-2003 03:40 PM
Quote:
Originally posted by MaggieL

Not to mention that Iraq hasn't finished paying France for the weapons for their last two wars. Or paid Russia for the stuff they bought from them...except perhaps the night-vision gear and the GPS jammers they bought recently; I suspect that was a cash deal.
Fortunately, the U.S. got the money up front for all of the equipment we sold Iraq when they were the 'lesser of many evils' in the region in the 70's.


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 06:42 PM.
Page 1 of 2 1 2
Show 60 post(s) from this thread on one page

Powered by: vBulletin Version 3.8.1
Copyright ©2000 - 2025, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.