Letter from a former "human sheild"

I'm sure it'll be too much information for some of you brainiacs,
but here's Something my buddy Ulfie showed me on the Porncity bbs.........


<b>I was a naive fool to be a human shield for Saddam</b>
By Daniel Pepper
(Filed: 23/03/2003)
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.




First-hand, written proof from someone who was there and talked directly with Iraqis. There are more accounts from other "former human shields" too, and you'll be seeing them and hearing about them more and more I'm sure.

When is there "enough" proof for the critics and anti-US over-opinionated asswipes like Direct Fester?